# potential
## English
### Etymology

From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent +‎ -ial.

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (US) IPA: (rare) /po(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃəl/
* Hyphenation: po‧ten‧tial

### Noun

potential (countable and uncountable, plural potentials)
* A currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
    Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician.
** 1990, The Hunt for Red October, →OCLC:Comrades, our own fleet doesn't know our full potential. They will do everything possible to test us, but they will only test their own embarrassment.
** 2022 December 31, Sarah Andersen, “The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It.”, in The New York Times‎:With some technical improvement, I could see how the process of imitating my work would soon become fast and streamlined, and the many dark potentials bubbled to the forefront of my mind.
* (physics) The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field.
* (physics) The work (energy) required to move a reference particle from a reference location to a specified location in the presence of a force field, for example to bring a unit positive electric charge from an infinite distance to a specified point against an electric field.
* (grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.

#### Synonyms

* noumenon
* spirit

#### Antonyms

* matter
* phenomenon

#### Derived terms

* after-potential, afterpotential
* eigenpotential
* electropotential
* hydropotential
* multipotential
* myopotential
* subpotential
* tripotential
* vectorpotential
* action potential
* decomposition potential
* demarcation potential
* electric potential
* electrode potential
* event-related potential
* evoked potential
* human potential movement
* injury potential
* Lennard-Jones potential (LJ potential)
* membrane potential
* normal potential
* potential theory
* potential vorticity
* redox potential
* resting potential
* standard electrode potential
* threshold potential
* velocity potential
* water potential
* zeta potential

#### Related terms

* potence
* potency
* potent
* potentate
* potentiality

#### Translations
### Adjective

potential (not comparable)
* Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
    Synonyms: noumenal, spiritual, virtual
    Antonyms: actual, phenomenal, real
** 1858, Thomas Carlyle, Chartism, Chapman & Hall, page 229:The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances.
* (archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result
    Synonyms: efficacious, influential
** 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello:And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
* (physics, of a field) irrotational
** 1997, Physics-Uspekhi, volume 40, numbers 1-6, American Institute of Physics, page 39:From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = −gradφ(r).
* (physics, of a flow) irrotational (see potential flow on Wikipedia)
** 2009, Grigory E. Volovik, The Universe in a Helium Droplet‎, Oxford University Press, page 60:The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational).
* (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.

#### Derived terms

* electrochemical potential
* equipotential
* immunopotential
* nonpotential
* potential difference
* potential energy
* potentialize
* potential mood
* potentialness
* potential temperature
* potential well

#### Translations
### Further reading

* “potential”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “potential”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* Potential on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Potential (physics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Swedish
### Noun

potential c
* potential (currently unrealized ability)
* (physics) potential

#### Related terms

* potens
* potentialvandring
* potentiell

### References

* potential in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* potential in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* potential in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)