potential
Noun pluralpotentials (some meanings)
Pluralpotentials (some meanings)
- 1Existing as a possibility rather than as something actual.
The report listed several potential risks to the project.
Investors evaluated the potential returns before committing any funds.
UsageUsually before the noun: a potential risk, potential buyers. After a verb, possible is the usual word: the risk is possible.
Note
One half of the philosopher's pair potential and actual, what could be set against what is. Carlyle's Past and Present (1843) shows the everyday turn, "is not every man... a potential hero?"
- 2An ability that exists but has not yet been developed or used.
Her potential as a scientist was obvious to everyone in the lab.
The region has enormous economic potential that remains untapped.
UsageOften potential to + verb or potential as + a role: the potential to lead, her potential as a scientist; people reach their full potential.
Similarpromise, capacity, capability, aptitude
- 3The possibility that something will occur, develop, or come into being; usually followed by "for" or "to".
Officials warned that the dispute over water rights carried real potential for violence.
The new drug has the potential to cut hospital stays by several days.
UsagePotential for takes a noun, potential to takes a verb: potential for violence, the potential to cut costs.
Similarpossibility, scope
Note
This sense is about outcomes rather than talent: where the "unrealized ability" meaning usually speaks well of a person or a plan, this one weighs what a situation could lead to, good or bad.
- 4In physics, the work needed per unit of charge or mass to bring a test particle from a reference point to a given point in a field, as in electric or gravitational potential.
Physicists computed the electric potential at each point along the wire.
The potential at infinity is taken as zero by convention.
Note
Physics measures it per unit of whatever is moved. In an electric field, it is the work per unit positive charge, so electric potential comes out in volts, or joules per coulomb. A reference point must be fixed first, classically infinity set at zero, because the quantity is defined only relative to that point. The gravitational potential names the same kind of quantity for gravity.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Electric potential measures the work required per unit test charge to bring it from the reference point. labs.phys.utk.edu
- Electric potential is measured in volts, equivalent to joules per coulomb. openstax.org
- Potential requires a chosen reference against which its value is defined. openstax.org
- Setting potential to zero at infinity is a conventional reference choice. openstax.org
- Gravitational potential is the analogous quantity per unit mass. spark.iop.org
Less common meanings
- 5Powerful; having energy or strength sufficient to produce a result.
And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
1603, William Shakespeare, OthelloSimilarefficacious
Note
An older sense that keeps the force of the Latin root: potentia meant "power", and here the word means what potent means today. Shakespeare's Othello speaks of "a voice potential", with the adjective placed after its noun. Modern readers will hear the "possible, not actual" meaning instead, so efficacious or influential is the safer choice outside historical or deliberately archaic writing.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Potential derives ultimately from Latin potentia, meaning power. en.wiktionary.org
- Potential has an archaic sense equivalent to potent. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare's Othello contains the exact phrase "a voice potential", with potential following its noun; Iago speaks the line to Othello. folger.edu
- 6Describing a vector field that can be written as the gradient of a scalar function, and so is irrotational (has no curl).
- 7Describing or relating to a verbal construction that states something is possible or probable.
- 8In grammar, a verb form or construction used when an action or state is presented as possible or likely.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia ("power"), which comes from potens ("powerful"). It can be seen as potent plus the suffix -ial.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Potential derives from Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia meaning power. en.wiktionary.org
- Potentia derives from potens, meaning powerful. en.wiktionary.org
- Potential can be analyzed as potent plus -ial. en.wiktionary.org