How to Use latent heat in a Sentence

latent heat

noun
  • The vapor carries with it a form of energy called latent heat.
    — Jennifer A. Francis, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2021
  • The chips release latent heat, while the graphite blocks release sensible heat.
    — Erik Kobayashi-Solomon, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The sinking air can act as a cap or heat dome, trapping the latent heat already absorbed by the landscape.
    — Umair Irfan, Vox, 5 June 2024
  • This means there is more latent heat release from the ocean, more water evaporation.
    — Max Golembo, ABC News, 11 Jan. 2023
  • The principle at work here takes advantage of what’s called the latent heat of vaporization.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 7 Oct. 2023
  • If the rubber is stretched quickly enough, the latent heat stays in the material and its temperature goes up.
    — Quanta Magazine, 24 Aug. 2020
  • However, as these vapor molecules left, their latent heat cooled the water jet itself.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 18 Dec. 2025
  • These electric climate-control units can suck heat out of the air — and there is always some latent heat available, even on a cold day — and transfer the warmth through their coils.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2021
  • That moisture condenses into clouds and thunderstorms and releases its latent heat, warming the core of the storm.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 29 Aug. 2023
  • As this release of latent heat continues, the central pressures continue to decrease.
    — Nick Shay, Quartz, 2 Sep. 2021
  • As well as conducting heat, wool also wicks away moisture vapor (which contains additional latent heat).
    — Outside Online, 4 May 2017
  • At higher pressures, the boiling temperature increases while the latent heat shrinks.
    — Frank Wilczek, WSJ, 29 July 2021
  • The moisture transfers, or latent heat, from the ocean to atmosphere are sustained over the warm eddies since the eddies are not significantly cooling.
    — Nick Shay, Quartz, 2 Sep. 2021
  • In addition, storm systems are fueled by latent heat – the large amount of energy released when water vapor condenses to liquid water.
    — Shuang-Ye Wu, The Conversation, 20 Dec. 2022
  • And heat pumps will capture the latent heat in the humid ambient air and transfer it back into the fish tanks, reducing the humidity substantially.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 3 June 2013
  • Manabe and his collaborators also considered that, high up in the column, the air is colder, and so cloud drops form, releasing latent heat stored in the water vapor.
    — Quanta Magazine, 5 Oct. 2021
  • This rising air cools and condenses into clouds and thunderstorms, releasing latent heat that fuels further development.
    — Hannah Parry amanda Castro anna Commander, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025
  • The InSight Mission will look at Mars's seismic activity and latent heat to find out more about how planets get made--and how humans might live there.
    — Steve Mirsky, Scientific American, 7 May 2018
  • The most familiar example of latent heat devices are rechargeable hand warmers, which contain a super-concentrated solution of sodium acetate in water.
    — Erik Kobayashi-Solomon, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2025
  • To summarize this chain of deductions, Langmuir proposed that seeding hurricanes would create ice and release latent heat; this in turn would widen the eye and reduce the destructive power of the storm.
    — Sam Kean, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2017
  • When water vapor condenses to form clouds, latent heat (energy) is released, which helps storms intensify by warming the surrounding air and causing instability.
    — Molly Rubin, Quartz, 12 July 2019
  • Convection involves turbulent eddies of warm air rising from the ground into the atmosphere above, and latent heat involves the absorption or release of energy from a phase change without the temperature changing.
    — Trey Fulbright, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • Air molecules heavy with moisture and sizzle soared on thunderstorm currents into Michael’s eye, releasing latent heat — an invisible smorgasbord of fuel for the burgeoning cyclone.
    — Kimberly Miller, sun-sentinel.com, 9 Oct. 2019
  • Using the latent heat of fusion as the figure—the energy required to melt a substance—the authors ultimately calculated that the Sun would have melted Icarus’ wings in between 42 and 67 minutes.
    — Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 22 Apr. 2014

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'latent heat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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