dormant

English

Alternative forms

• dormaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dormiēns, present participle of dormiō (“I sleep”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔɹmənt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔːmənt/

Adjective

dormant (not comparable)

1. Inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.

   Grass goes dormant during the winter, waiting for spring before it grows again.

   The bank account was dormant; there had been no transactions in months.

   This volcano is dormant but not extinct.

   • 1777, Edmund Burke, A Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America; republished in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, volume 2, 1864, page 10:

     It is by lying dormant a long time, or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people.

2. (heraldry) In a sleeping posture; distinguished from couchant.

   a lion dormant

3. (architecture) Leaning.

Synonyms

• (inactive, suspended): quiescent; see also Thesaurus:inactive

Antonyms

• (inactive, suspended): active
• (volcano: inactive): active, extinct

Related terms

• dorm
• dormancy
• dormition
• dormitive
• dormitory

Translations

inactive, asleep, suspended

• Bulgarian: спящ (bg) (spjašt), латентен (bg) (latenten), неактивен (neaktiven)
• Catalan: latent
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 睡眠狀態的／睡眠状态的, 睡眠状态的 (shuìmián zhuàngtài de), 休眠 (zh) (xiūmián)

• Danish: sovende, slumrende, hvilende
• Dutch: niet actief, slapend (nl), latent (nl)
• Finnish: horroksessa oleva
• French: dormant (fr), endormi (fr), inactif (fr)
• German: schlafend (de), inaktiv
• Greek: κοιμώμενος (el) m (koimómenos), κοιμισμένος (el) m (koimisménos), αδρανής (el) m or f (adranís)
• Hungarian: szunnyadó (hu), alvó (hu)
• Indonesian: terbengkalai (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 休止中の (kyūshichū no), 休眠中の (kyūminchū no)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sovende

• Persian: خفته (fa) (xofte)
• Polish: uśpiony
• Portuguese: dormente (pt), inativo (pt)
• Romanian: inactiv (ro), suspendat (ro)
• Russian: неакти́вный (ru) (neaktívnyj), спя́щий (ru) (spjáščij), усну́вший (ru) (usnúvšij), лате́нтный (ru) (laténtnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: dìomhair
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: spicy

• Spanish: latente

Noun

dormant (plural dormants)

1. (architecture) A crossbeam or joist.

Further reading

• “dormant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dormant”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “dormant”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• mordant

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔʁ.mɑ̃/

Adjective

dormant (feminine dormante, masculine plural dormants, feminine plural dormantes)

1. dormant
2. asleep

Verb

dormant

1. present participle of dormir

Further reading

• “dormant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• mordant

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Norman

Verb

dormant

1. present participle of dormi