Definition of: potential

(pə·ten′shəl) adjective
1. Possible but not actual.
2. Having capacity for existence, but not yet existing.
3. Physics Existing by virtue of position: said of energy: distinguished from kinetic.
4. Gram. Indicating possibility or power. See POTENTIAL MOOD.
5. Having force or power.
—noun
1. Anything that may be possible; a possible development.
2. Gram. The potential mood.
3. Physics A condition at a point in space, due to local attraction or repulsion, such that a mass, electric charge, etc., at that point becomes capable of doing work.
4. Electr. The ratio of the potential energy possessed by an electrically charged body because of its position in an electric field to the charge carried by the body. [<LL potentialis]
—po·ten′tial·ly adverb