potential
Syllables: po·ten·tialUK/pəˈtɛnʃəl//po(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃəl/
potential noun: a currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
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.
- 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.1990, The Hunt for Red October, →OCLC
- The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field.
- 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.
- A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.
Adjective
potential (not comparable)
- Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
- The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances.1858, Thomas Carlyle, Chartism, Chapman & Hall, page 229
- Antonyms:
- actual, phenomenal, real
- Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result
- And hath, in his effect, a voice potential1603, William Shakespeare, Othello
- Synonyms:
- efficacious, influential
- irrotational
- From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = −gradφ(r).1997, Physics-Uspekhi, volume 40, numbers 1-6, American Institute of Physics, page 39
- irrotational (see potential flow on Wikipedia)
- The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational).2009, Grigory E. Volovik, The Universe in a Helium Droplet^(http://books.google.com/books?id=6uj76kFJOHEC&pg=PA60&dq=%22The+non-viscous+flow+of+the+vacuum+should+be+potential+(irrotational)%22&hl=en&e...
- Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.
potential meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
potential in Hindi
- energy of a unit electrical charge
- विभव vibhav
potential in Tamil
- இயலாற்றல், சாத்தியக்கூறு
potential in Marathi
- संभाव्यता, संभाव्य
potential in Bengali
- সম্ভাব্য বস্তু, সম্ভাব্য বিষয়, সম্ভাবনাসূচক ক্রিয়াভাব, সম্ভাবনাসূচক ক্রিয়াপদ, শক্তিশালী, কার্যকর
More languagesFewer languages
- potential in Telugu
- సంభావ్యత
- potential in Malayalam
- ശക്തിയുള്ള, സംഭവനീയമായ, പ്രബലമായ, സമർത്ഥമായ
- potential in Kannada
- ಒಳಕಸುವು, ನೆಗಳ್ಪು, ಗಟ್ಟಿ, ಕಸುವು
- potential in Gujarati
- સંભવિતતા
- potential in Nepali
- सम्भाव्यता, सम्भावित
- potential in Tagalog
- kaigtingan, binitin
- potential in Malay
- potensi
- potential in Indonesian
- potensi
- potential in Thai
- ศักยภาพ sàk-gà-yá-pâap
- potential in Vietnamese
- tiềm năng
Examples of potential in a sentence
- The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals.
- Mary has been touted as a potential successor to the current CEO.
- Every person who steps through the door is a potential buyer, so acknowledge their presence.
Synonyms of potential
Antonyms
Forms of potential
| plural | potentials |
|---|
Origin of potential
From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent + -ial.
Words formed from potential
- action potential
- Cornell potential
- Coulomb potential
- decomposition potential
- demarcation potential
- electric potential
- electrode potential
- event-related potential
- evoked potential
- human potential movement
- injury potential
- Lennard-Jones potential
- membrane potential
- MLR potential
- Morse potential
- normal potential
- potench
- potential barrier
- potential theory
- potential vorticity
- redox potential
- resting potential
- standard electrode potential
- threshold potential
- velocity potential
- water potential
- Yukawa potential
- zeta potential
- after-potential
- afterpotential
- biopotential
- eigenpotential
- electropotential
- geopotential
- hydropotential
- multipotential
- myopotential
- overpotential
- postpotential
- prepotential
- pseudopotential
- quasipotential
- subpotential
- superpotential
- tripotential
- underpotential
- vectorpotential
- zetapotential
- bipotential
- electrochemical potential
- equipotential
- immunopotential
- interpotential
- isopotential
- nonpotential
- oligopotential
- omnipotential
- potential difference
- potential energy
- potentialism
Phrases with potential
Questions about potential
- What does potential mean?
- Potential means a currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
- What is potential in Hindi?
- Potential in Hindi is विभव (vibhav). See Potential meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is potential?
- Potential can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce potential?
- Potential is pronounced /pəˈtɛnʃəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of potential?
- The plural of potential is potentials.
Words near potential in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: potential (page history and authors); potential (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); potential (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); potential (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); potential (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); potential (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); potential (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); potential (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); potential (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-potential.ogg.
Cite this entry: “potential.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/potential. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.