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dormant

/ˈdɔːrmənt//ˈdɔːmənt/·adjective
temporarily inactive; alive or present but not currently active
Fig. 1 — Snow comes down over the ground line and keeps coming, and under it a seed lies so still it could be mistaken for a stone.
01Definition

Dormant means sleeping, not dead — the word comes straight from the Latin dormire, 'to sleep'. A dormant volcano is quiet but capable; a dormant seed waits out the winter with its whole future folded inside it; a dormant talent, account, or conflict can wake at any time. The essential idea is preserved potential: nothing is happening, and everything still could.

02In use
  • iThe volcano has been dormant for two centuries, but the geologists watching it remain vigilant.
  • iiMany seeds lie dormant in the soil until rain and warmth arrive together.
  • iiiHer interest in painting lay dormant for years; it took a single exhibition to galvanize her into picking up a brush.
03Collocations
  • a dormant volcano
  • lie dormant
  • remain dormant
  • dormant seeds
  • a dormant account

Family dormancy (noun)

04Relations

=inactive, latent, sleeping, quiescent, suspended

≠active, awake, erupting

05Compared
PairThe difference
dormant vs stagnantstill but alive and able to restart → dormant; still, and getting worse for standing still → stagnant.
dormant vs vigilantalert and on guard → vigilant; quiet but able to wake → dormant.
06TOEFL & IELTS

A TOEFL biology and geology favorite: dormant volcanoes, dormant seeds, dormancy in animals (alongside 'hibernation'). Reading questions often test it against 'extinct' — a dormant volcano can still erupt; an extinct one cannot. The noun is 'dormancy'; in IELTS, 'lie dormant' is the collocation worth owning.

07Asked
What is the difference between dormant and latent?
Dormant is something active that has paused and can resume — a volcano, an account, a plant that sleeps through winter. Latent is something present but never yet expressed at all — a latent talent, a latent infection. Dormant went quiet after being awake; latent has been there all along, simply waiting for its first showing.
Can a dormant volcano still erupt?
Yes — that is exactly what separates dormant from extinct. A dormant volcano is quiet now but has erupted in the recent geological past and is expected to again; an extinct one is not. Geologists often draw the line around activity in roughly the last 10,000 years. Dormant means resting, not finished.
What is a dormant bank account?
An account with no customer-initiated activity for a long stretch — often a year or more — so the bank flags it as inactive. The money remains yours; dormancy is an administrative status, not a loss. Reactivating it usually just takes a login or a transaction. The word keeps its core: asleep, not dead.
What does it mean for a seed to lie dormant?
It means the seed has paused its growth and is waiting out bad conditions — cold, drought, darkness — with its whole future folded inside, ready to spring when the season turns. The scene above is this exactly: a seed still under snow, sending the faint occasional pulse that says only 'still here', until warmth arrives and it drives up a shoot.
What is the noun form of dormant?
Dormancy — 'a period of dormancy', 'seeds break dormancy in spring'. Biology gives it finer names by mechanism: hibernation in mammals through winter, torpor for shorter daily shutdowns, diapause for paused insect development. All are kinds of dormancy — life turned down low to save itself for later.
What is the difference between dormant and vigilant?
They are opposites of state: dormant is asleep and holding still, vigilant is awake and watching. The full contrast, with both animated scenes, is on the vigilant vs dormant page in the 'Compared' list above.