adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Inactive, quiet, at rest.

   "The bats were quiescent at that time of day, so we slowly entered the cave."

2. 2
   Not sounded; silent.

   "The k is quiescent in "knight" and "know"."

3. 3
   Non-proliferating.

Adjective

1. 1
   (pathology) causing no symptoms wordnet
2. 2
   being quiet or still or inactive wordnet
3. 3
   not active or activated wordnet
4. 4
   marked by a state of tranquil repose wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

at restdormantinactivepassivequietstill

Antonyms

All antonyms

activeanimatefuribundin action

Example

More examples

"The volcano had been quiescent for centuries, but scientists still monitored it closely."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quiēscēns, quiēscentem.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.