# potential

Pronunciation: say "puh-TEN-shuhl" /pəˈtɛnʃəl/

## Adjective

1. Existing as a possibility rather than as something actual.
   - Simple: Possible in the future but not happening or real right now.
   - _The report listed several potential risks to the project._
   - _Investors evaluated the potential returns before committing any funds._

## Noun

2. An ability that exists but has not yet been developed or used.
   - Simple: An ability someone or something has but has not used yet.
   - _Her potential as a scientist was obvious to everyone in the lab._
   - _The region has enormous economic potential that remains untapped._
3. The possibility that something will occur, develop, or come into being; usually followed by "for" or "to".
   - Simple: The chance that something may happen or grow, often used with "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._
4. In 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.
   - Simple: In physics, the stored energy each unit of charge or mass would have at a point in an electric or gravitational field.
   - _Physicists computed the electric potential at each point along the wire._
   - _The potential at infinity is taken as zero by convention._

## Adjective

5. Powerful; having energy or strength sufficient to produce a result. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Powerful and strong enough to make something happen.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Describing a vector field that can be written as the gradient of a scalar function, and so is irrotational (has no curl).
- (adjective) Describing or relating to a verbal construction that states something is possible or probable.
- (noun) In grammar, a verb form or construction used when an action or state is presented as possible or likely.

## Origin

From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia ("power"), which comes from potens ("powerful"). It can be seen as potent plus the suffix -ial.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/potential (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).