Latent means present but hidden, not yet visible or active. Think of it like a seed buried in soil: the potential for a plant is there, but you can't see it until conditions are right for it to sprout.

A person might have latent artistic talent that no one knows about until they finally pick up a paintbrush and discover they're good at it. A disease can have a latent period where someone is infected but shows no symptoms yet. In science, latent heat is energy that's absorbed or released during a change of state (like ice melting) without changing temperature: the energy is there, doing work, but you can't measure it with a thermometer.

When something is latent, it's lying in wait. A student might have latent leadership abilities that emerge only when given responsibility. A talent can remain latent for years before the right opportunity brings it out.

Latent is different from nonexistent: the quality or potential really is there, just not observable yet. It's the difference between having no musical ability and having ability that simply hasn't been discovered or developed. Understanding what's latent helps us remember that absence of evidence isn't always evidence of absence.