The meaning of POTENTIAL is existing in possibility : capable of development into actuality. How to use potential in a sentence. POTENTIAL definition: 1.

Understanding the Context

possible when the necessary conditions exist: 2. someone's or something's ability to develop…. Learn more. In physics, a potential may refer to the scalar potential or to the vector potential.

Key Insights

In either case, it is a field defined in space, from which many important physical properties may be derived. POTENTIAL definition: possible, as opposed to actual. See examples of potential used in a sentence. If you say that someone or something has potential for doing a particular thing, you mean that it is possible they may do it. If there is the potential for something, it may happen.

Final Thoughts

If you can describe something as possible but not yet actual, choose the adjective potential. Companies try to reach potential customers through advertising. The first time "potential" showed up in English, it meant pretty much the same thing as its Latin ancestor: "power" or "ability." Over time, the meaning shifted slightly to focus on the idea of something that has the ability to develop into something else in the future. potential (countable and uncountable, plural potentials) Even from a young age it was clear that she had the potential to become a great musician. 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.

Potential definition: Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent or undeveloped. Definition of potential adjective in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.