释义 |
Definition of potential in English: potentialadjective pə(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃ(ə)lpəˈtɛn(t)ʃəl attributive Having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future. a campaign to woo potential customers Example sentencesExamples - Instead the study was just a process to find out the potential capacity for new homes.
- The history of the 1869 work is thought to have boosted its value among potential bidders.
- For potential investors, the prospect of enjoying cheap beer is far more appealing.
- It's a version of last year's winning car, but perhaps near the end of its potential development.
- There are many potential abuses that future governments may make of the information contained on a card.
- A woman who has fallen on hard times finds a potential saviour among the gravestones.
- Many supermarkets now provide free buses to carry potential customers into their premises.
- New or potential customers may be located around the globe or in your local area.
- She admitted that potential savings were probably not top of the list, however.
- It is expressed in the present tense, and refers to current use, not past or future or potential use.
- A prospectus for potential sponsors raises the prospect of boarding academies.
- In particular, it claims the cost of the service is likely to turn-off potential customers.
- Visitors to the city's boat show would also be among the potential guests targeted.
- Hunt said he was worried about the development because of the potential fire threat.
- The range of potential targets for future intervention will grow correspondingly.
- This fusion of unfamiliar conditions would normally make the hosts among the potential winners.
- They can be seen as potential development land by philistines who only see land as money waiting to happen.
- Why is the government so timid about embryo research given the potential rewards?
- Additionally, rarely will a new potential customer buy on the first visit.
- Links are also being developed with potential partners in New York, Dubai and Helsinki.
Synonyms possible, likely, prospective, future, probable, budding, in the making latent, embryonic, developing, dormant, inherent, unrealized, undeveloped
noun pə(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃ(ə)lpəˈtɛn(t)ʃəl 1mass noun Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. a young broadcaster with great potential count noun the potentials of the technology were never wholly controllable Example sentencesExamples - Few tracks offer a most searching examination of a thoroughbred's ability, and potential.
- If this facility is not used to its potential, the future of the Club could be in jeopardy.
- Following on from this, I think this story has excellent potential if developed cleverly.
- The merit acquired from this gift is used to trigger the forces of latent positive potential in oneself or others.
- Its success potential will rest heavily on how strictly its license terms are defined.
- Any time that a hospital doctor devotes to computing does not lead to increased income potential.
- We have vast untapped potential in hydro power and in natural gas from the Arctic.
- It is a tragedy in this case because the life lost was one with such future potential.
- We also see tremendous potential in developing our client base in Harrogate and surrounding areas.
- He is a talented player, but has yet to develop his potential and prove his staying power.
- Unfulfilled potential is about as useful as a canal with no water in it.
- It is a compliment to his ability and obvious potential that his name has been so widely mentioned.
- In the modern game, too often managers are chosen on potential rather than proven ability.
- Often the biggest barrier for women is a lack of confidence in their own skills and potential.
- This will allow them to develop individual academic and sporting talent to full potential.
- The first drew on evidence that selection led to a huge waste of national potential.
- It is for the society at large to harness the latent potential in the children and benefit out of that.
- He was talented and hard-working and had such potential for success in life.
- The only real way to compare potential is to give everyone the same chance to shine.
- You could say that we can compare our capabilities and potential to that of an iceberg!
Synonyms possibilities, potentiality, prospects promise, capability, capacity, ability, power aptitude, talent, flair informal what it takes - 1.1often potential for/to do something The possibility of something happening or of someone doing something in the future.
pesticides with the potential to cause cancer Example sentencesExamples - It has experienced strong growth in the past three years and has good potential for future growth.
- More to the point still, is this potential to anger particularly strong in the media?
- They have potential for greatness, but they need to let go, let it happen.
- It was as a viable project with potential for economic regeneration and ecological improvements.
- There is a ruined former railway cottage on the property with potential for further development.
- The site had previously been listed in the town's Local Plan as having potential for development.
- The potential for future conflicts is horrific, and will remain so while capitalism survives.
- It will spend the next few years developing the area's potential for exploration.
- He also said the county had huge potential to develop and expand in rural areas.
- It struck them both there was potential to offer a service commercially.
- While I am in favor of this technology, it possesses a hell of a lot of potential for abuse.
- They were of course unaware of the latent potential for economic growth just around the corner.
- There is so much potential for this to be one of Bradford's most attractive shopping thoroughfares.
- Modern medicine raises the stakes as its power to do good is accompanied by increasing potential for harm.
- The trials in February are to identify those riders who have potential to compete in the Paralympics.
- Rural pubs have great potential to assume a business and community role.
- Inevitably the campaigners have now turned their sights to potential for suing drinks companies.
2Physics The quantity determining the energy of mass in a gravitational field or of charge in an electric field. a change in gravitational potential count noun measurements of induced electrical potentials Example sentencesExamples - A problem with evoked potentials is that their amplitude is exceedingly small.
- This is well established by studies on electro-osmosis and streaming potentials.
- Various measurable bits in the universe have vastly different potentials to have a causal impact.
- Electrical action potentials, osmotic perturbations or chemical signals may trigger these waves.
- The normal conduction of action potentials is reliant upon sodium channels.
Derivatives noun pə(ʊ)tɛnʃɪˈalɪtipəˌtɛn(t)ʃiˈælədi The potentialities and possibilities of the electronic medium have been put to use to achieve this end. Example sentencesExamples - The nature of such powers (also referred to as dispositions, tendencies, potentialities and capacities) is a hotly disputed issue in contemporary metaphysics.
- It has little or no real interest in other skills, abilities, or potentialities, not to mention the needs, desires, imagination, or commitment to intellectual life of faculty members.
- Welfare kids shipped off to orphanages can be called adolescents with kinetic potentiality.
- Utopias enabled the expression of potentialities and possibilities of escape.
verb pəˈtɛnʃəlʌɪzpəˈtɛn(t)əˌlaɪz [with object]Make potential; give potential to. classical war, with its many factors that relativize, potentialize, or reduce the use of arms, is complex Example sentencesExamples - In that sense, being non-intelligible logically potentialises new identities to form, allowing indeterminacy to wriggle out from under the pall of subjection.
- The ritualised practice of cruising potentialises the automobilised space of the street and carpark so it becomes an event-space where the incorporeal event of ‘nothing’ happens.
- It is the type of development that might have been further potentialised in terms of its capacity for international and global linkage.
Origin Late Middle English: from late Latin potentialis, from potentia 'power', from potent- 'being able' (see potent1). The noun dates from the early 19th century. Rhymes cadential, confidential, consequential, credential, deferential, differential, essential, evidential, existential, experiential, exponential, influential, intelligential, irreverential, jurisprudential, penitential, pestilential, preferential, presidential, providential, prudential, quintessential, referential, residential, reverential, sapiential, sciential, sentential, sequential, tangential, torrential Definition of potential in US English: potentialadjectivepəˈten(t)SHəlpəˈtɛn(t)ʃəl attributive Having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future. a two-pronged campaign to woo potential customers Example sentencesExamples - For potential investors, the prospect of enjoying cheap beer is far more appealing.
- New or potential customers may be located around the globe or in your local area.
- Why is the government so timid about embryo research given the potential rewards?
- Links are also being developed with potential partners in New York, Dubai and Helsinki.
- She admitted that potential savings were probably not top of the list, however.
- There are many potential abuses that future governments may make of the information contained on a card.
- Hunt said he was worried about the development because of the potential fire threat.
- This fusion of unfamiliar conditions would normally make the hosts among the potential winners.
- Many supermarkets now provide free buses to carry potential customers into their premises.
- The range of potential targets for future intervention will grow correspondingly.
- It's a version of last year's winning car, but perhaps near the end of its potential development.
- It is expressed in the present tense, and refers to current use, not past or future or potential use.
- Instead the study was just a process to find out the potential capacity for new homes.
- A woman who has fallen on hard times finds a potential saviour among the gravestones.
- The history of the 1869 work is thought to have boosted its value among potential bidders.
- Additionally, rarely will a new potential customer buy on the first visit.
- They can be seen as potential development land by philistines who only see land as money waiting to happen.
- Visitors to the city's boat show would also be among the potential guests targeted.
- A prospectus for potential sponsors raises the prospect of boarding academies.
- In particular, it claims the cost of the service is likely to turn-off potential customers.
Synonyms possible, likely, prospective, future, probable, budding, in the making
nounpəˈten(t)SHəlpəˈtɛn(t)ʃəl 1Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. a young broadcaster with great potential the potentials of the technology were never wholly controllable Example sentencesExamples - Its success potential will rest heavily on how strictly its license terms are defined.
- It is for the society at large to harness the latent potential in the children and benefit out of that.
- The merit acquired from this gift is used to trigger the forces of latent positive potential in oneself or others.
- It is a tragedy in this case because the life lost was one with such future potential.
- It is a compliment to his ability and obvious potential that his name has been so widely mentioned.
- The first drew on evidence that selection led to a huge waste of national potential.
- The only real way to compare potential is to give everyone the same chance to shine.
- Often the biggest barrier for women is a lack of confidence in their own skills and potential.
- Any time that a hospital doctor devotes to computing does not lead to increased income potential.
- Following on from this, I think this story has excellent potential if developed cleverly.
- We have vast untapped potential in hydro power and in natural gas from the Arctic.
- This will allow them to develop individual academic and sporting talent to full potential.
- He is a talented player, but has yet to develop his potential and prove his staying power.
- He was talented and hard-working and had such potential for success in life.
- Few tracks offer a most searching examination of a thoroughbred's ability, and potential.
- If this facility is not used to its potential, the future of the Club could be in jeopardy.
- Unfulfilled potential is about as useful as a canal with no water in it.
- In the modern game, too often managers are chosen on potential rather than proven ability.
- You could say that we can compare our capabilities and potential to that of an iceberg!
- We also see tremendous potential in developing our client base in Harrogate and surrounding areas.
Synonyms possibilities, potentiality, prospects - 1.1often potential for/to do something The possibility of something happening or of someone doing something in the future.
pesticides with the potential to cause cancer the crane operator's clear view reduces the potential for accidents Example sentencesExamples - The site had previously been listed in the town's Local Plan as having potential for development.
- It was as a viable project with potential for economic regeneration and ecological improvements.
- It struck them both there was potential to offer a service commercially.
- The trials in February are to identify those riders who have potential to compete in the Paralympics.
- The potential for future conflicts is horrific, and will remain so while capitalism survives.
- More to the point still, is this potential to anger particularly strong in the media?
- He also said the county had huge potential to develop and expand in rural areas.
- Modern medicine raises the stakes as its power to do good is accompanied by increasing potential for harm.
- They have potential for greatness, but they need to let go, let it happen.
- There is a ruined former railway cottage on the property with potential for further development.
- It has experienced strong growth in the past three years and has good potential for future growth.
- It will spend the next few years developing the area's potential for exploration.
- They were of course unaware of the latent potential for economic growth just around the corner.
- While I am in favor of this technology, it possesses a hell of a lot of potential for abuse.
- Inevitably the campaigners have now turned their sights to potential for suing drinks companies.
- Rural pubs have great potential to assume a business and community role.
- There is so much potential for this to be one of Bradford's most attractive shopping thoroughfares.
2Physics The quantity determining the energy of mass in a gravitational field or of charge in an electric field. Example sentencesExamples - Electrical action potentials, osmotic perturbations or chemical signals may trigger these waves.
- Various measurable bits in the universe have vastly different potentials to have a causal impact.
- This is well established by studies on electro-osmosis and streaming potentials.
- A problem with evoked potentials is that their amplitude is exceedingly small.
- The normal conduction of action potentials is reliant upon sodium channels.
Origin Late Middle English: from late Latin potentialis, from potentia ‘power’, from potent- ‘being able’ (see potent). The noun dates from the early 19th century. |