potential

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   existing in possibility

   a potential problem

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   adj

   Existing in possibility, not in actuality.

   The heroic man,—and is not every man, God be thanked, a potential hero?—has to do so, in all times and circumstances.

4. 4
   adj

   Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result

   And hath, in his effect, a voice potential

5. 5
   adj

   irrotational

   From Maxwell equations (6.20) it follows that the electric field is potential: E(r) = −gradφ(r).

6. 6
   adj

   irrotational (see potential flow on Wikipedia)

   The non-viscous flow of the vacuum should be potential (irrotational).

7. 7
   adj

   expected to become or be

8. 8
   noun

   the difference in electrical charge between two points in a circuit expressed in volts

Etymology

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