potential

English Online Dictionary. What means potential‎? What does potential mean?

English

Etymology

From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). By surface analysis, potent +‎ -ial.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): (rare) /po(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃəl/
• Hyphenation: po‧ten‧tial

Noun

potential (countable and uncountable, plural potentials)

1. A currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to).
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.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

potential (not comparable)

1. Existing in possibility, not in actuality.

   Synonyms: noumenal, spiritual, virtual

   Antonyms: actual, phenomenal, real
2. (archaic) Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result

   Synonyms: efficacious, influential
3. (physics, of a field) irrotational
4. (physics, of a flow) irrotational (see potential flow on Wikipedia)
5. (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “potential”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “potential”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Potential on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Potential (physics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Swedish

Noun

potential c

1. potential (currently unrealized ability)
2. (physics) potential

Declension

Related terms

• potens
• potentialvandring
• potentiell

References

• potential in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• potential in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• potential in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)