not active or growing now but able to become active or to grow in the future synonym inactive a dormant volcano During the winter the seeds lie dormant in the soil. The seeds may lie dormant for hundreds of years. opposite active Oxford Collocations DictionaryDormant is used with these nouns: volcano See full entry Word Originlate Middle English (in the senses ‘fixed in position’ and ‘latent’): from Old French, ‘sleeping’, present participle of dormir, from Latin dormire ‘to sleep’.
Check pronunciation: dormant
