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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

latent

/ˈleɪtənt/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does latent mean?

adjective

  1. Existing or present, but concealed or inactive.
  2. Remaining in an inactive or hidden phase; dormant.
  3. Lying dormant or hidden until circumstances are suitable for development or manifestation.
More meanings (4)

noun

  1. The residue left by a person's finger that can be made visible by a process such as powder dusting; a latent fingerprint.
  2. An underlying cause that can be inferred from statistical correlations; factor.
  3. Anything that is latent.

adjective

  1. (dated) Latently homosexual.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈleɪtənt/

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature’s requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.
Kate ChopinThe Awakening, and Selected Short StoriesProject Gutenberg ebook #160
Yet its consequences were latent in every word that he and she exchanged, in every glance they instinctively turned from each other.
Edith WhartonSummerProject Gutenberg ebook #166
More book examples (2)
The problem, therefore, in each case is to find the latent ability and interest and to regard no case as really hopeless.
Abraham MyersonThe Foundations of PersonalityProject Gutenberg ebook #1575
Hence, the name, by which the latent power of these natural objects became known, was in strict harmony with the facts involved.
Thomas H. Burgoyne; Belle M. WagnerThe Light of Egypt; Or, The Science of the Soul and the Stars — Volume 2Project Gutenberg ebook #1650