Word of the Day

: August 14, 2020

quiescent

adjective kwy-ESS-unt

What It Means

1 : marked by inactivity or repose : tranquilly at rest

2 : causing no trouble or symptoms

quiescent in Context

"'Inflation' means a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services, either at the consumer or producer level. It certainly is dormant or quiescent right now." — Edward Lotterman, The St. Paul (Minnesota) Press, 28 July 2019

"Since the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, cancer therapies have moved closer toward personalized medicine—tailoring treatments to an individual's genetic fingerprint or DNA—to help predict responses to therapy or to flag differences between aggressive and quiescent disease." — Susan Jenks, Florida Today (Brevard County, Florida), 1 Oct. 2015

Did You Know?

Quiescent won't cause you any pain, and neither will its synonyms latent, dormant, and potential—at least not immediately. All four words mean "not now showing signs of activity or existence." Latent usually applies to something that has not yet come forth but may emerge and develop, as in "a latent talent for opera singing." Dormant implies a state of inactivity similar to sleep, as in "their passions lay dormant." Potentia­l applies to what may or may not come to be. "A potential disaster" is a typical example. Quiescent, which traces to Latin quiēscere (meaning "to rest" or "to be quiet"), often suggests a temporary cessation of activity, as in "a quiescent disease" or "a summer resort quiescent in wintertime."