Potentially

How to spell potentially

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce potentially

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does potentially mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is possible but not yet actual; with the capacity to happen or develop in the future.

Potentially in a sentence

• The new contract could potentially double the company's annual revenue.

• Investing without a clear plan is potentially very risky.

Where does potentially come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb posse, meaning 'to be able', whose present participle potens described someone or something 'being able' or 'powerful'. From potens came the noun potentia, meaning 'power' or 'capacity', and the related adjective potentialis, meaning 'capable of coming into being'. Medieval scholars used potentialis in philosophy to contrast something that exists merely as a possibility with something that actually exists, and English borrowed 'potential' through Old French in the late fourteenth century with exactly that sense of latent, not-yet-realised capacity. The adverb 'potentially' was then built in English by stacking the suffixes -ial and -ly onto that root. The same posse ancestor still lives inside everyday words like 'possible', 'potent' and 'omnipotent', and remembering the buried 'potent' helps explain why there are two t's and the tricky -tially ending that sounds like 'shully'.

How the word is built

• potent- (from Latin potens, powerful/able)
• -ial (adjective-forming suffix)
• -ly (adverb-forming suffix)