- latent
- latent, dormant, quiescent, potential, abeyant are comparable when meaning not now manifest or not evincing signs of existence or activity.Latent implies concealment and is applied to what is present without showing itself{
latent energy
}{a latent infection
}{his sinister qualities, formerly latent, quickened into life— Hardy
}{it remained possible that by further development, latent contradictions might have been revealed— Russell
}Dormant usually suggests sleeping and is applied to something which has once been active but now is inactive though not incapable of future activity{a dormant plant
}{a dormant volcano
}{which power can never be exercised by the people themselves, but must be placed in the hands of agents, or lie dormant— John Marshall
}{she pursued him with attentions, and when his passion was dormant sought to excite it— Maugham
}Quiescent emphasizes the fact of inactivity without necessary implications either of causes or of past or future activity{with the increase of their wealth . . . they sank into quiescent Tories— Meredith
}Sometimes it connotes immobility{if only we could persuade ourselves to remain quiescent when we are happy\—Jefferies
}Potential applies to something which at a time in question does not possess such being, nature, or effect as is expressed but which is likely to have or capable of having such being, nature, or effect at some future time{potential energy
}{disaffected citizens who area potential danger to the nation
}{this eye for a potential and achievable best— Mumford
}{it [an infant] must from the very first be viewed seriously, as a potential adult— Russell
}Abeyant (more often, predicatively, in abeyance) implies a suspen-sion of activity or active existence{in Mr. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance—George Eliot
}It usually connotes expectancy of revival{nothing seemed left . . . of. . . the former Lewis Raycie, save a lurking and abeyant fear of Mr. Raycie senior— Wharton
}{until all danger of counterrevolution should have been removed, personal rights and liberties would have to be kept strictly in abeyance—Ogg & Zink
}Analogous words: hidden, concealed (see HIDE vb): *inactive, inert, idle: unripe, unmatured, *immatureAntonyms: patent
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
