How to Use latent in a Sentence

latent

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of latentnext
Synonyms for latentnext
  • Next is the latent stage, where there are no signs of infection.
    — Carolyn L. Todd, SELF, 28 May 2019
  • Namely, when will the nation tire of playing Russian roulette with guns and the latent killers who walk among us?
    — Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 4 Mar. 2018
  • Someone else sets off a latent dirty bomb in space and our satellites are taken out.
    — Kristina Libby, Popular Mechanics, 10 Dec. 2019
  • The suit also states that no latent fingerprints were recovered from the knife nor the knife’s sheath.
    — Danny McDonald, BostonGlobe.com, 2 June 2018
  • Peso Pluma clearly knows how to hear the latent right-now in the music of yesterday.
    — Chris Richards, Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Pujols had drawn a walk and showed off some latent speed by stealing second base.
    — Maria Torres, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Many of us grew up camping in a VW bus, sparking both a love of the outdoors and a latent affinity toward life on the road.
    — Megan Barber, Curbed, 9 May 2018
  • For example, leaking pipes in the walls would be a latent defect.
    — Gary Singer, Sun Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2023
  • About a quarter of the world’s population has such latent TB.
    — The Economist, 14 Dec. 2019
  • There has been a continuous, latent danger of an attack in the whole of Germany.
    — Zeke Turner, WSJ, 7 Apr. 2018
  • In touting the gains from the border closure, however, its latent costs should not be ignored.
    — Stephen Onyeiwu, Quartz Africa, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Government should work with the people, not against them, to unlock latent potential in the earth, in schools, in labs, in factories, in cities.
    — Matthew Continetti, National Review, 10 June 2023
  • Howe recently had a baby and fears a latent raisin-handing-out gene may be getting ready to show itself.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The piece begins as a slow dirge, then accelerates into a kind of battle charge — the episode climaxes in a call to war for the latent rebels in Ferrix.
    — Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2023
  • This also speaks to a latent tension between the royal family and the media.
    — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Over the six months since the raid of his home, Paras had remained in denial, putting on a defiant face but quietly living in a state of latent terror.
    — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Bets by hedge funds against Italian bonds have risen to levels not seen since the financial crisis, in a reminder of latent risks in the eurozone.
    — Laurence Fletcher, WSJ, 25 May 2018
  • Myers’ latent power is his best trait, but that’s less valuable in a San Diego lineup loaded with plenty of thump.
    — Michael Shapiro, SI.com, 27 June 2019
  • One employee in Philadelphia calls the cops on a pair of black men and employees across the nation are kind of assumed to be latent racists.
    — Fox News, 20 Apr. 2018
  • When the immune system drops its guard, these latent viruses can start replicating again.
    — Alice Park, Time, 2 July 2019
  • There’s a latent metaphor here, waiting to explode into drama.
    — Julia M. Klein, Philly.com, 5 June 2018
  • And yes: Carell was good too, mining just a little bit of the latent pathetic Michael Scott, but for a guy who actually had power.
    — Alissa Wilkinson, Vox, 21 Dec. 2018
  • But in the model's latent space, the image has characteristics of both the original and the poison concept, which leads the model astray when trained on the data.
    — Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 25 Oct. 2023
  • But the lab results didn’t turn up latent fingerprints or DNA, so agents can’t compare anything to the possible suspect pool.
    — Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo, BostonGlobe.com, 13 July 2023
  • Tiang’s play often teases out the issues of identity latent in such moments.
    — Han Zhang, The New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2023
  • There's no need to clutter up the crowded latent space with information that doesn't change from one image to another.
    — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 16 Dec. 2019
  • There’s always a potential that there’s a latent problem later on.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 7 Nov. 2023
  • Taking medicines for latent TB infection can cure the infection and keep these people from getting sick.
    — City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Speech is latent as well as actualized with a potency far greater than any atomic bomb.
    — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 8 Dec. 2023
  • That usable form is known as a latent space, or a compact array in computer programming terms.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 5 Dec. 2023
Advertisement

latent

2 of 2 noun
  • The latent phase: Can lie dormant for decades in nerve cells near the head and spine.
    — USA Today, 23 May 2022
  • Their projects are a combination of the chefs’ latent passions and the kitchens that gave them space to thrive.
    — Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 May 2021
  • The disruption of Amy sees Cedric and Jean-Michel face up to their latent sexism.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Jan. 2022
  • Fogel and Ashford tease out the latent horror in the story.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Jan. 2023
  • And then it was awakened when [Jay’s character’s wife] died and all of these latent feelings came up to the surface.
    — Danielle Turchiano, Variety, 20 Aug. 2021
  • This sculpture explores an idea of latent potential, the past and the future.
    — Nadja Sayej, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2021
  • After the election, some of these latent strains in the tactical world became more overt.
    — Rachel Monroe, Wired, 15 Jan. 2021
  • For now, the problem of the hop latent viroid has largely fallen to growers themselves.
    — Dan Adams, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Dec. 2022
  • When his secret past comes back to haunt him, a small-town stoner must use his latent, deadly skills to prevent the CIA from taking him out.
    — Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2021
  • So will latent cases, where the bacteria remains dormant in the body.
    — Emily Schwing, Anchorage Daily News, 8 May 2022
  • Dig deep to unearth valuable skills and latent talents.
    — Tribune Content Agency, oregonlive, 23 Aug. 2020
  • Rothoff said that the majority of people with TB have the latent form of TB, and will go decades without having any symptoms.
    — Annie Berman, Anchorage Daily News, 11 July 2020
  • The latent phase: High-risk HPV can hide in the affected skin or mucous membrane for several years.
    — AZCentral.com, 5 May 2022
  • The impetus wasn’t quite on the level of the shelter-at-home mandates that inspired so many of us to rekindle latent skills, or create new ones, in the last few months—but close.
    — Roy S. Johnson | Rjohnson@al.com, al, 24 Nov. 2020
  • Today, Apollo and Zeus were taking the day off, Weinstein said, while the doors were kept wide open to dissipate any latent smoke.
    — Doug Smithsenior Writer, Los Angeles Times, 13 Nov. 2022
  • Yet there was a doubleness about him in matters of eros that chimes, for me, with the latent ardors and explicit constraints of his painting.
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2022
  • Our mission is to discover the latent talent of the subculture.
    — Patrick Frater, Variety, 6 July 2022
  • Nicholas Cage has never been better than in this self-parody of his latent career.
    — ELLE, 22 Dec. 2022
  • One new strategy to get around this involves shocking the latent viruses out of hiding.
    — Anna Funk, Discover Magazine, 13 Apr. 2021
  • The pandemic has ramped up the latent efforts that were in development.
    — Alex Kulitski, Forbes, 8 June 2021
  • And there’s tremendous latent demand — especially in a place where the economy has been strong — for road space.
    — Kara Miller, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Sep. 2022
  • Some latent viruses like HPV are well understood to cause certain types of cancers.
    — AZCentral.com, 5 May 2022
  • Ray had cancer and Maria was dealing with paralysis on one side of her body due to a latent spinal deformity.
    — Olivia Solon, NBC News, 8 Dec. 2021
  • Now, Yiddishe Pirat is kind of retracing back to the Epstein Brothers, more of the traditional drum beats, more of a latent life.
    — Annie Nickoloff, cleveland, 16 June 2022
  • The violence in Levenson’s tidy glass pieces, which also contain razor blades and tufts of sharp wire, is latent.
    — Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2021
  • Early in the pandemic, my latent desire for an at-home audio sleep aid swelled to an absolute need.
    — Parker Hall, Wired, 20 June 2021
  • Cells can only take full advantage of these latent changes, however, when the memory is called to mind again.
    — Quanta Magazine, 2 Nov. 2020
  • Some researchers want to understand how stress causes latent viruses to reemerge.
    — USA Today, 23 May 2022
  • The chance to make a sequel to one’s own film is a gift of freedom for a director, a chance to expand ideas, reveal latent motives, and push major themes in new directions.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 26 May 2021
  • Contrary to the deranged fevers of its enemies, the Manifesto is not some latent malevolent force in the world, lying in wait to curse and seduce the innocent.
    — James Robins, The New Republic, 19 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'latent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: