potential
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
ipa: /po(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃəl/
Forms: form: potentials
Etymology: From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent + -ial.
Senses: examples: text: Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician.
text: 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.
ref: 1990, The Hunt for Red October, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2022 December 31, Sarah Andersen, “The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It.”, in The New York Times:
glosses: A currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: 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.
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.
Synonyms: noumenon
spirit
Derived terms: sense: Compound words
word: after-potential
sense: Compound words
word: afterpotential
sense: Compound words
word: biopotential
sense: Compound words
word: eigenpotential
sense: Compound words
word: electropotential
sense: Compound words
word: geopotential
sense: Compound words
word: hydropotential
sense: Compound words
word: multipotential
sense: Compound words
word: myopotential
sense: Compound words
word: overpotential
sense: Compound words
word: postpotential
sense: Compound words
word: prepotential
sense: Compound words
word: pseudopotential
sense: Compound words
word: quasipotential
sense: Compound words
word: subpotential
sense: Compound words
word: superpotential
sense: Compound words
word: tripotential
sense: Compound words
word: underpotential
sense: Compound words
word: vectorpotential
sense: Compound words
word: zetapotential
sense: Expressions
word: action potential
sense: Expressions
word: decomposition potential
sense: Expressions
word: demarcation potential
sense: Expressions
word: electric potential
sense: Expressions
word: electrode potential
sense: Expressions
word: event-related potential
sense: Expressions
word: evoked potential
sense: Expressions
word: human potential movement
sense: Expressions
word: injury potential
sense: Expressions
english: LJ potential
translation: LJ potential
word: Lennard-Jones potential
sense: Expressions
word: membrane potential
sense: Expressions
word: normal potential
sense: Expressions
word: potench
sense: Expressions
word: potential theory
sense: Expressions
word: potential vorticity
sense: Expressions
word: redox potential
sense: Expressions
word: resting potential
sense: Expressions
word: standard electrode potential
sense: Expressions
word: threshold potential
sense: Expressions
word: velocity potential
sense: Expressions
word: water potential
sense: Expressions
word: zeta potential
Related terms: potence
potency
potent
potentate
potentiality