See Also: Potential Value(money)
Potential(money)
potential(dictionary)
S potential(medicine)
Potential(medicine)
potential 1, adjective(dictionary)
thermodynamic potential(medicine)
transmembrane potential(medicine)
water potential(medicine)
zeta potential(medicine)

potential (iou)



potential adjective & noun. LME.
[Old French potenciel (mod. -tiel) or late Latin potentialis, from potentia: see POTENCE noun1, -AL1.]
A. adjective.
Possible as opp. to actual; capable of coming into being or action; latent. LME.
potential cautery: see CAUTERY 1.
A. Storr Those with potential gifts..whose talents have remained unrealized for lack of recognition. J. Klein How mysterious a baby is, its personality still largely potential.
b. Grammar. Designating or pertaining to the subjunctive mood when used to express possibility. M16.
Possessing (great) power; potent, powerful. Now rare. L15.
J. S. Mill Without any potential voice in their own destiny.
Physics. Of a property etc.: that would be manifested under certain different, esp. standard, conditions. L19.
potential energy energy which a body possesses by virtue of its state or position not its motion (cf. KINETIC energy). potential temperature the temperature that a given body of gas or liquid would have if it were brought adiabatically to a standard pressure of 1 bar or 1 atmosphere.
b. noun.
= potential cautery s.v. CAUTERY 1. rare. Only in LME.
A thing which gives power. rare. Only in M17.
That which is possible as opp. to actual; a possibility; spec. capacity for use or development, resources able to be used or developed. E19.
J. Bronowski Every cell in the body carries the complete potential to make the whole animal. G. Paley A soft job in advertising, using a fraction of his potential. S. Brett The young man read the play, recognized its potential.
Physics. A mathematical function or quantity by the differentiation of which can be expressed the (gravitational, electromagnetic, etc.) force at any point in space arising from a system of bodies, electrical charge, etc. (also potential function; the quantity of energy or work denoted by this, considered as a quality or condition of the matter, electricity, etc., and equivalent to that required to move a body, charge, etc., from the given point to a reference point of zero potential (e.g. the earth, infinity); gen. any function from which a vector field can be derived by differentiation (also potential function). E19.
action potential, chemical potential, ionization potential, Madelung potential, resting potential, etc.
b. Any of a group of thermodynamic functions mathematically analogous to electric and gravitational potentials, including free energy, enthalpy, internal energy, and chemical potential. L19.
Grammar. The potential mood. L19.
Comb.: potential barrier a region in a field of force in which the potential is significantly higher than at points either side of it, so that a particle requires energy to pass through it; spec. that surrounding the potential well of an atomic nucleus; potential difference the difference of electric potential between two points; potential flow flow which is irrotational and for which there therefore exists a velocity potential; potential function: see sense B.4 above; potential gradient (the rate of) change of (electrical) potential with distance; potential scattering Nuclear Physics elastic scattering of a particle by an atomic nucleus in which the scattering cross-section varies smoothly with the energy of the incident particle; potential wall a region in a field of force in which the potential increases sharply; potential well a region in a field of force in which the potential is significantly lower than at points immediately outside it, so that a particle in it is likely to remain there unless it gains a relatively large amount of energy; spec. that in which an atomic nucleus is situated.
potentialize verb trans. make potential, give potentiality to; spec. convert (energy) into a potential condition: M19.
potentially adverb LME.
potentialness noun M17.