potential

Etymology

From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”); synchronically analysable as potent + -ial.

noun

1. 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
   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. 2022-12-31, Sarah Andersen, “The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It.”, in The New York Times
2. (physics) The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field.
3. (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.
4. (grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.

adj

1. 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
2. (archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result
   And hath, in his effect, a voice potential 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello
3. (physics) A potential field is an irrotational (static) field.
   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
4. (physics) A potential flow is an irrotational flow.
   The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational). 2009, Grigory E. Volovik, The Universe in a Helium Droplet%22&hl=en&ei=mXVBTuWuHIufOuGf9ckJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1), Oxford University Press, page 60
5. (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.