Potential

How to spell potential

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce potential

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does potential mean?

1. adjectiveCapable of becoming or developing into something in the future, though not yet actual.
2. nounLatent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success.

Potential in a sentence

• adjective

  The recruiter flagged her as a potential candidate for the senior role.

• noun

  The coach believed the young striker had enormous potential.

• adjective

  Engineers inspected the bridge for any potential weakness before the winter.

• noun

  This neighbourhood has real potential for new investment.

Where does potential come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin potentia, meaning 'power' or 'capacity', which was built on the verb posse, 'to be able'. The medieval Latin form potentialis described something that exists as a possibility rather than as a present fact, a sense philosophers used to contrast what a thing could become with what it actually was. English took the word in the late 1300s through Old French, first as a learned adjective meaning 'possible but not yet realised'. The same posse root still powers everyday relatives such as 'potent', 'omnipotent' and even 'possible'. For spellers the trap is the unstressed middle and the ending: it is spelled with a 't' that sounds like 'sh', giving the -tial finish rather than the -cial that catches many writers.

How the word is built

• potent- (from Latin potens: powerful, able)
• -ial (adjective/noun suffix)