potentiality

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English potential

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ts

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts

Latin -itāsder.

Old French -itebor.

Middle English -ite

English -ity

English potentiality

From potential + -ity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˌtɛnʃiˈælɪti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pəˌtɛn(t)ʃiˈæləti/, [-ɾi]
• Rhymes: -ælɪti
• Hyphenation: pot‧ent‧i‧al‧i‧ty

Noun

potentiality (countable and uncountable, plural potentialities)

1. (chiefly uncountable) The quality of being or having potential.

   Synonym: potency

   Hyponyms: multipotentiality, multipotency; plenipotence, plenipotency; pluripotency, pluripotentiality; omnipotence, omnipotency, omnipotentiality

   filled with potentiality

   A new year is filled with potentiality.

2. (countable) An instance of potential: any given possibility.

   any and all potentialities

   We've been prepping for years, and we like to hope that we're ready for all potentialities — as ready as one can be.

3. An inherent capacity for growth or development.
4. An aptitude amenable to development; capability.
5. (philosophy) A possibility or capacity to be something, as opposed to an actuality describing what something actually is at present.
6. (physics) Quantum potential.

Derived terms

• bipotentiality
• equipotentiality
• isopotentiality
• nonpotentiality

Related terms

• potence
• potency
• potent
• potentate
• potential

Further reading

• “potentiality”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “potentiality”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.