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dormant

[dawr-muhnt]

Origin

Dormant www.ask.com/Dormant Questions Dormant Dormant Answers

adjective

lying asleep or as if asleep; inactive, as in sleep; torpid: The lecturer's sudden shout woke the dormant audience.

in a state of rest or inactivity; inoperative; in abeyance: The project is dormant for the time being.

Biology. in a state of minimal metabolic activity with cessation of growth, either as a reaction to adverse conditions or as part of an organism's normal annual rhythm.

undisclosed; unasserted: dormant musical talent.

(of a volcano) not erupting.

EXPAND

Botany. temporarily inactive: dormant buds; dormant seeds.

(of a pesticide) applied to a plant during a period of dormancy: a dormant spray.

Heraldry. (of an animal) represented as lying with its head on its forepaws, as if asleep.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English dorma(u)nt < Anglo-French, present participle of dormir < Latin dormīre to sleep; see -ant

Related forms

non·dor·mant, adjective

sem·i·dor·mant, adjective

Synonyms
1, 2. quiescent. See inactive. 4. latent.

Antonyms
1. awake, active.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Dormant is always a great word to know.

So is yellow-green algae. Does it mean:

single-celled colonial algae occurring in soil and on moist rocks and vegetation and also as a slime or scum on ponds and stagnant waters

the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations

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Collins

World English Dictionary

dormant (ˈdɔːmənt)

—*adj*
1.	quiet and inactive, as during sleep
2.	latent or inoperative
3.	(of a volcano) neither extinct nor erupting
4.	biology alive but in a resting torpid condition with suspended growth and reduced metabolism
5.	(usually postpositive) heraldry (of a beast) in a sleeping position

[C14: from Old French dormant, from dormir to sleep, from Latin dormīre]

'dormancy

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

dormant

late 14c., from O.Fr. dormant, prp. of dormir "to sleep," from L. dormire "to sleep," from I.E. base *dre- "to sleep" (cf. O.C.S. dremati "to sleep, doze," Gk. edrathon "I slept," Skt. drati "sleeps").

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

dormant

(dôr'mənt) Pronunciation Key

Being in an inactive state during which growth and development cease and metabolism is slowed, usually in response to an adverse environment. In winter, some plants survive as dormant seeds or bulbs, and some animals enter the dormant state of hibernation.
Not active but capable of renewed activity. Volcanoes that have erupted within historical times and are expected to erupt again are dormant.

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