| Adj. | 1. | latent - potentially existing but not presently evident or realized; "a latent fingerprint"; "latent talent" |
| 2. | latent - not presently active; "latent infection"; "latent diabetes" |
LATENT, construction. That which is concealed; or which does not appear; for example, if a testator bequeaths to his cousin Peter his white horse; and at the time of making his will and at his death he had two cousins named Peter, and he owned two white horses, the ambiguity in this case would be latent, both as respects the legatee, and the thing bequeathed. Vide Bac. Max. Reg. 23, and article Ambiguity. A latent ambiguity can only be made to appear by parol evidence, and may be explained by the same kind of proof. 5 Co. 69.
abeyant, abstruse, apathetic, arcane, beclouded, behind the curtain, behind the scenes, between the lines, blind, buried, cabalistic, camouflaged, cataleptic, catatonic, censored, classified, close, closed, clouded, covered, covert, cryptic, dark, dead, delitescent, disguised, dopey, dull, eclipsed, enigmatic, esoteric, flat, foul, groggy, heavy, hermetic, hibernating, hid, hush-hush, idle, immature, imperceptible, in a cloud, in a fog, in abeyance, in eclipse, in purdah, in suspense, in the wings, incommunicado, indiscernible, inert, insensible, invisible, languid, languorous, leaden, lifeless, logy, lurking, muffled, mysterious, mystic, obfuscated, obscure, occult, out of sight, passive, phlegmatic, possible, quiescent, recondite, restricted, secluded, secluse, sedentary, sequestered, sightless, slack, sleeping, sluggish, slumbering, smoldering, smothered, stagnant, standing, static, stifled, submerged, suppressed, suspended, tame, top secret, torpid, ulterior, unapparent, unaroused, unbeheld, unbeholdable, unbreatheable, under an eclipse, under cover, under house arrest, under security, under the surface, under wraps, underground, underlying, undiscernible, undisclosable, undisclosed, undivulgable, undivulged, unknown, unmanifested, unmatured, unnoticed, unobserved, unperceivable, unperceived, unrealized, unrevealable, unrevealed, unripe, unseeable, unspoken, untellable, untold, unutterable, unuttered, unviewed, unwhisperable, unwitnessed, veiled, viewless, virtual, wrapped in clouds