potential

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
This potential was all cited during the debates prior to subsidizing Ethanol IIRC.

View all »
Definitions (43)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. adjective Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent: a potential problem.
  2. adjective Having possibility, capability, or power.
  3. adjective Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verbal construction with auxiliaries such as may or can; for example, it may snow.
5 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (29)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (48)

  • So the potential is there. —  Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian economics
  • As with any wiki-based system, the potential is there for both accurate and inaccurate information to appear, as well as the potential for malicious user activity.
  • When you take that example and multiply it by all the bookstores in the country, the potential is there for digital publishing to supplant not just the business model for brick-and-mortar bookstores, but also positively impact the environment. —  ReveNews
  • Sometimes, figuring out the potential is a bit of a guess. —  The Pour
  • While Maynor noted in February that he had actually found such vulnerabilities and reported them to Apple, he said he would shortly release the code that he used, in order to show that the potential was there before Apple released patches, and that the patches corresponded to what he and Ellch found. —  Wi-Fi Networking News
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 156 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

actual ·  major ·  long-term ·  current
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English potencial, from Old French potenciel, from Late Latin potentiālis, powerful, from Latin potentia, power, from potēns, potent-, present participle of posse, to be able; see potent.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English potencial, from Old French potential, potentiel, French potentiel = Provencal Spanish Portuguese potencial = Italian potenziale, from Late Latin *potentialis, of power (in adverb potentialiter), from Latin potentia, power: see potence.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/pəˈtɛnʃəl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a day.

Recently looked up

electricity · potential · treachery · predatory · Silverback

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

pew · deadpool · sad panda · nom nom nom · woobie