Latent Meaning
/ˈleɪ.tənt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjExisting or present but concealed or inactive.
adjRemaining in an inactive or hidden phase; dormant.
Sentence Examples
There are many latent gays among rampant homophobes.
You have a latent problem here that will cause trouble in the future.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor found a ____ infection that showed no symptoms but could become serious.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scientist discovered a ____ talent for music in the young child, who had never played an instrument before.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English latent, latente, from Old French latent, from Latin latēns, present participle of lateō (“lie hidden”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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 person processing the evidence, and a sketch indicating the location of the lifted latent print on the back of the lift card, as shown in Photo 6.6."
— 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:
"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 variable."
— 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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor found a ____ infection that showed no symptoms but could become serious.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scientist discovered a ____ talent for music in the young child, who had never played an instrument before.