potential
A currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
Example
“Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician.”
Other meanings
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.
Related words
- biopotential
- geopotential
- overpotential
- postpotential
- prepotential
- pseudopotential
- quasipotential
- superpotential
- underpotential
- zetapotential
- eigenpotential
- electropotential
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "potentia" (power).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “potential” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.