latent
/ˈleɪ.tənt/
latent adjective: existing or present, but concealed or inactive.
Adjective
latent (not comparable)
- Existing or present, but concealed or inactive.
- There is known latent demand for rail freight and the rail freight industry is working with Scottish businesses to develop new rail freight services, as environmental concerns are beginning to change the logistics choices of Scottish producers.2020 August 12, Philip Haigh, “Scotland reveals 2035 decarbonisation strategy”, in Rail, page 12
- Remaining in an inactive or hidden phase; dormant.
- Those infected with a herpes virus are infected for life. That’s because the virus goes "latent." Sometimes, it awakes from its slumber, producing painful illnesses.2008 July 2, Joe Palca, “Scientists Make Herpes Breakthrough”, abstract, All Things Considered, National Public Radio
- Antonyms:
- active
- Lying dormant or hidden until circumstances are suitable for development or manifestation.
- Latently homosexual.
Noun
latent (plural latents)
- The residue left by a person's finger that can be made visible by a process such as powder dusting; a latent fingerprint.
- Once the latent prints have been visualized by the superglue and powder dusting techniques, they should be photographed again. Then the developed latents need to be lifted and placed on backing cards. The latent cards are documented by putting the case number, date and time of lifting, initials of...2001, Henry C. Lee, Timothy Palmbach, Marilyn T. Miller, Henry Lee's Crime Scene Handbook, →ISBN, page 383
- Paralegal workers do not argue cases in court, and these crimescene fingerprint gatherers do not compare crime-scene latents to known prints of suspects and present their findings in court.2008, Jim Fisher, Forensics Under Fire, →ISBN
- An underlying cause that can be inferred from statistical correlations; factor.
- These kinds of latents define the invariant dispositional properties enabling prediction and control of the external environment. Finally, there are the latents that underlie manifestation as relationships of power, as cause to effect, condition to occurrence, or dependent variable to independent...1975, Rudolph J. Rummel, Understanding Conflict and War, →ISBN
- That is, the observed covariance between indicator y₁ and y₃ would mirror the understandable causal behavior of the corresponding underlying latents.2007, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner, The SAGE Handbook of Social Science Methodology, →ISBN, page 166
- Anything that is latent.
- Even if latents may not be actually detectable in any given situation, they may nevertheless be present in it. Latents may become actual if proper triggering conditions are in place, or they may be lost in the process.2011, Javier Cumpa, Erwin Tegtmeier, Ontological Categories, →ISBN, page 158
- After we discovered Leah and I realized what she was, the flood gates opened. More and more latents have been discovered, as well as cubs.2016, Christa Wick, Alpha Curves: A BBW Shapeshifter Romance
latent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
latent in Hindi
- latent, hidden
- गर्भस्थ garbhasth
latent in Tamil
- உட்கிடை, உள்ளுறை, மறைந்திரு, மறைந்திருக்கிற, மறைவான
latent in Urdu
- خوابیدہ, مخفی, نہاں
latent in Bengali
- সুপ্ত, প্রচ্ছন্ন
More languagesFewer languages
- latent in Malayalam
- പ്രകടമല്ലാത്ത, ഒളിഞ്ഞുകിടക്കുന്ന, പ്രത്യക്ഷമല്ലാത്ത
- latent in Kannada
- ಅಡಗಿರುವ, ಗುಪ್ತ, ಸುಪ್ತ, ಅವ್ಯಕ್ತ
- latent in Sanskrit
- सुप्त supta
- latent in Arabic
- كَامِن kāmin, دَفِين dafīn
- latent in Indonesian
- laten
- latent in Persian
- نهفته nahofte
- latent in Vietnamese
- ngầm, ngấm ngần, âm ỉ, ẩn
Examples of latent in a sentence
- Once the latent prints have been visualized by the superglue and powder dusting techniques, they should be photographed again.2001, Henry C. Lee, Timothy Palmbach, Marilyn T. Miller, Henry Lee's Crime Scene Handbook, →ISBN, page 383:
- These kinds of latents define the invariant dispositional properties enabling prediction and control of the external environment.1975, Rudolph J. Rummel, Understanding Conflict and War, →ISBN:
Synonyms of latent
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of latent
| plural | latents |
|---|
Origin of latent
From Middle English latent, latente, from Old French latent, from Latin latēns, present participle of lateō (“lie hidden”).
Words formed from latent
Phrases with latent
Words that rhyme with latent
Questions about latent
- What does latent mean?
- Latent means existing or present, but concealed or inactive.
- What is latent in Hindi?
- Latent in Hindi is गर्भस्थ (garbhasth). See Latent meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use latent in a sentence?
- Once the latent prints have been visualized by the superglue and powder dusting techniques, they should be photographed again.
- What part of speech is latent?
- Latent can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce latent?
- Latent is pronounced /ˈleɪ.tənt/.
Words near latent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: latent (page history and authors); गर्भस्थ (Hindi) (page history and authors); latent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); latent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); latent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); latent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); latent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-latent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “latent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/latent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.