potential
Appearance
See also: Potential
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent + -ial.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK, US) IPA(key): /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
Audio (US): (file) - (US) IPA(key): (rare) /po(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃəl/
- Hyphenation: po‧ten‧tial
Noun
[edit]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.
- 1990, The Hunt for Red October, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 2022 December 31, Sarah Andersen, “The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It.”, in The New York Times[1]:
- 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.
- (physics) The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field.
- (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.
- (grammar) A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable.
Synonyms
[edit]Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Compound words
Expressions
- action potential
- decomposition potential
- demarcation potential
- electric potential
- electrode potential
- event-related potential
- evoked potential
- human potential movement
- injury potential
- Lennard-Jones potential (LJ potential)
- membrane potential
- normal potential
- potential theory
- potential vorticity
- redox potential
- resting potential
- standard electrode potential
- threshold potential
- velocity potential
- water potential
- zeta potential
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]currently unrealized ability
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physics: the radial component of a gravitational field
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energy of a unit electrical charge
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grammar: verbal construction
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Adjective
[edit]potential (not comparable)
- Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
- 1858, Thomas Carlyle, Chartism, Chapman & Hall, page 229:
- The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances.
- (archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result
- Synonyms: efficacious, influential
- 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello:
- And hath, in his effect, a voice potential
- (physics) A potential field is an irrotational (static) field.
- 1997, Physics-Uspekhi, volume 40, numbers 1-6, American Institute of Physics, page 39:
- From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = −gradφ(r).
- (physics) A potential flow is an irrotational flow.
- 2009, Grigory E. Volovik, The Universe in a Helium Droplet[2], Oxford University Press, page 60:
- The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational).
- (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]existing in possibility
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Further reading
[edit]- “potential”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “potential”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- Potential on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Potential (physics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Swedish
[edit]Noun
[edit]potential c
Declension
[edit]Declension of potential
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁es-
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms suffixed with -ial
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Physics
- en:Grammar
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Physical quantities
- en:Energy
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- sv:Physics