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Entry 5 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Potential

/pət-ĕn'-shəl/ · Po·ten·tial · IPA /pəˈtɛnʃəl/
01 a. Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.
  1. 1.
    Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential.[Obs.]
  2. 2.
    Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
    “Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at ome time; actual existence, that it now is.” — Sir W. Hamilton.
Phrases & compounds
Potential cautery — See under Cautery.
Potential energy — See the Note under Energy.
Potential mood — 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.
02 n. Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.
  1. 1.
    Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.
  2. 2.
    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.(Math.) Also: potential function, force function
  3. 3.
    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.(Elec.)