potential
See also: Potential
English
Etymology
From Late Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”); synchronically analysable as potent + -ial.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: po‧ten‧tial
Noun
potential (countable and uncountable, plural potentials)
- 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.
- (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.
Antonyms
Related terms
Translations
currently unrealized ability
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physics: the radial component of a gravitational field
energy of a unit electrical charge
grammar: verbal construction
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Adjective
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.
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- (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, number 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).
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- (physics) A potential flow is an irrotational flow.
- (grammar) Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable.
Translations
existing in possibility
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Further reading
- potential in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- potential in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Potential on Wikipedia.Wikipedia Potential (physics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Swedish
Declension
Declension of potential | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | potential | potentialen | potentialer | potentialerna |
Genitive | potentials | potentialens | potentialers | potentialernas |
Related terms
- potens
- potentialvandring
- potentiell
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