POTENTIAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Potential

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/pətˈɛnʃəl/ /pətˈɛntʃəl/ Listen

adjective

Potential adj.

1.

Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential. (Obs.) "And hath in his effect a voice potential."

2.

Existing in possibility, not in actuality. "A potential hero." "Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at ome time; actual existence, that it now is."

Potential cautery. See under Cautery.

Potential energy. (Mech.) See the Note under Energy.

Potential mood, or Potential mode (Gram.), that form of the verb which is used to express possibility, liberty, power, will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can, must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can write.

noun

Potential n.

1.

Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.

2.

(Math.) In the theory of gravitation, or of other forces acting in space, a function of the rectangular coordinates which determine the position of a point, such that its differential coefficients with respect to the coordinates are equal to the components of the force at the point considered; also called potential function, or force function. It is called also Newtonian potential when the force is directed to a fixed center and is inversely as the square of the distance from the center.

3.

(Elec.) The energy of an electrical charge measured by its power to do work; hence, the degree of electrification as referred to some standard, as that of the earth; electro-motive force.

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Etymology of 'Potential'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Potential" Quotes from Famous Books

... stage may be seen to pass, in the lively letters which Morier sent home, the figures of potential and actual princes of Bulgaria, of whom only two deserve mention to-day. The first, Alexander of Battenberg, member of a family which enjoyed Queen Victoria's special favour, had been put forward at the Berlin Congress, and justified ...

— Victorian Worthies - Sixteen Biographies • George Henry Blore

... obsessed with the idea that he would discover some peerless bloom for which he would be paid hundreds of pounds by a London dealer. Every silk-cotton tree is covered with what Jamaicans term "wild pines," air-plants, orchids, and other epiphytes, and every silk-cotton was to him a potential Golconda, so whenever we came across one he wanted the buggy stopped, and up the tree he went like a lamp lighter. I am bound to admit that he was an admirable tree climber, but I objected on the score of delicacy to the large rents that these aerial ...

— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton

... presented in the proper place, To proper placemen, every Russ credential; And was received with all the due grimace By those who govern in the mood potential, Who, seeing a handsome stripling with smooth face, Thought (what in state affairs is most essential) That they as easily might do the youngster, As hawks may ...

— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... calls "units" of the organic world. "When individuals multiply from generation to generation, it is but a repetition of the primordial type-idea, and the true notion of the species is not in the resulting group, but in the idea or potential element which is the basis of every individual of the group."[50] Dr. Morton's definition of species as "primordial organic forms," agrees with that given by Professor Dana; and both agree with the Bible, which says that God created plants and animals each after ...

— What is Darwinism? • Charles Hodge

... because they "connected their advocacy of political and legal changes with theories of human nature," because they "considered the great art of government in connection with the character of man, his proper education, his potential capacities," and could explain "in the large dialect of a definite scheme what were their aims ...

— Socialism As It Is - A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement • William English Walling

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