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Latently

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Wikipedia 0.48 sec.
la·tent  (ltnt)
adj.
1. Present or potential but not evident or active: latent talent.
2. Pathology In a dormant or hidden stage: a latent infection.
3. Biology Undeveloped but capable of normal growth under the proper conditions: a latent bud.
4. Psychology Present and accessible in the unconscious mind but not consciously expressed.
n.
A fingerprint that is not apparent to the eye but can be made sufficiently visible, as by dusting or fuming, for use in identification.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin latns, latent-, present participle of latre, to lie hidden.]
latent·ly adv.
Synonyms: latent, dormant, quiescent
These adjectives mean present or in existence but not active or manifest. What is latent is present but not evident: latent ability.
Dormant evokes the idea of sleep: a dormant volcano.
Quiescent sometimesbut not alwayssuggests temporary inactivity: "For a time, he [the whale] lay quiescent" Herman Melville.
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But it was not in reasonable nature that a man so organized, and with such terrible experiences and remembrances as he had; it was not in nature that these things should fail in latently engendering an element in him, which, under suitable circumstances, would break out from its confinement, and burn all his courage up.
Moby Dick I-LXVII by Melville, Herman View in context
It was Kraft who first voiced the fear that each of us must have held latently.
The Four Million by Henry, O. View in context
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