Potential

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: po=ten=tial

CIDE DICTIONARY

Potential, a. [Cf. F. potentiel. See Potency.].

•  Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Existing in possibility, not in actuality.  Carlyle.  [1913 Webster]

  "Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at ome time; actual existence, that it now is."  [1913 Webster]

Potential cautery. See under Cautery. -- Potential energy. (Mech.) See the Note under Energy. -- Potential mood, or Potential mode (Gram.), that form of the verb which is used to express possibility, liberty, power, will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can, must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can write.

Potential, n. 

•  Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.  Bacon.  [1913 Webster]
•  In the theory of gravitation, or of other forces acting in space, a function of the rectangular coordinates which determine the position of a point, such that its differential coefficients with respect to the coördinates are equal to the components of the force at the point considered; -- also called potential function, or force function. It is called also Newtonian potential when the force is directed to a fixed center and is inversely as the square of the distance from the center.  [1913 Webster]
•  The energy of an electrical charge measured by its power to do work; hence, the degree of electrification as referred to some standard, as that of the earth; electro-motive force.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Potential, adj. & n.
--adj. capable of coming into being or action; latent.
--n.
1 the capacity for use or development; possibility (achieved its highest potential).
2 usable resources.
3 Physics the quantity determining the energy of mass in a gravitational field or of charge in an electric field.

Idiom

potential barrier a region of high potential impeding the movement of particles etc. potential difference the difference of electric potential between two points. potential energy a body's ability to do work by virtue of its position relative to others, stresses within itself, electric charge, etc.

Derivative

potentiality n. potentialize v.tr. (also -ise). potentially adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF potencial or LL potentialis f. potentia (as POTENT(1))

THESAURUS

Potential

EMF, ability, aptitude, bare possibility, between the lines, budding, bump, caliber, capability, capacity, chance, cogitable, concealed, conceivability, conceivable, conceivableness, conceivably possible, conditional, contingency, contingent, covert, cryptic, delitescent, developing, dormant, dower, dowry, electric potential, electromotive force, electromotivity, embryonic, endowment, equipment, esoteric, even chance, eventuality, faculty, flair, forte, future, genius, gift, good chance, good possibility, hibernating, hidden, hope, humanly possible, imaginable, imminent, imperative, implicit, implied, indicative, instinct, jussive, latent, likelihood, likely, long suit, lurking, makings, metier, mode, mood, muffled, mystic, natural endowment, natural gift, obfuscated, obligative, obscured, occult, off chance, optative, outside chance, outside hope, parts, passive, permissive, plausible, possibilities, possibility, possible, possibleness, potency, potential difference, potentiality, power, powers, probability, probable, prospect, qualification, quiescent, remote possibility, sleeping, small hope, speciality, strong flair, strong point, subjunctive, submerged, talent, talents, the attainable, the feasible, the goods, the possible, the stuff, thinkability, thinkable, thinkableness, under the surface, underlying, undeveloped, unmanifested, unrealized, veiled, virtual, virtuality, volt, voltage, what is possible, what it takes, what may be, what might be

ROGET THESAURUS

Potential

Inexistence

N inexistence, nonexistence, nonsubsistence, nonentity, nil, negativeness, nullity, nihility, nihilism, tabula rasa, blank, abeyance, absence, no such thing, nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion, annihilation, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, Nirvana, obliteration, inexistent, nonexistent, negative, blank, missing, omitted, absent, insubstantial, shadowy, spectral, visionary, unreal, potential, virtual, baseless, in nubibus, unsubstantial, vain, unborn, uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived, unproduced, unmade, perished, annihilated extinct, exhausted, gone, lost, vanished, departed, gone with the wind, defunct, fabulous, ideal, supposititious &c, negatively, virtually, non ens.

Power

N power, potency, potentiality, jiva, puissance, might, force, energy, dint, right hand, right arm, ascendency, sway, control, prepotency, prepollence, almightiness, omnipotence, authority, strength, ability, ableness, competency, efficacy, efficiency, productivity, expertise (skill), validity, cogency, enablement, vantage ground, influence, pressure, conductivity, elasticity, gravity, electricity, magnetism, galvanism, voltaic electricity, voltaism, electromagnetism, atomic power, nuclear power, thermonuclear power, fuel cell, hydraulic power, water power, hydroelectric power, solar power, solar energy, solar panels, tidal power, wind power, attraction, vis inertiae, vis mortua, vis viva, potential energy, dynamic energy, dynamic friction, dynamic suction, live circuit, live rail, live wire, capability, capacity, quid valeant humeri quid ferre recusent, faculty, quality, attribute, endowment, virtue, gift, property, qualification, susceptibility, powerful, puissant, potential, capable, able, equal to, up to, cogent, valid, efficient, productive, effective, effectual, efficacious, adequate, competent, multipotent, plenipotent, omnipotent, almighty, forcible, (energetic), influential, productive, powerfully, by virtue of, by dint of, a toute force, dos moi pou sto kai kino ten gen, eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, fortis cadere cedere non potest.