noun
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latent or inherent capacity or ability for growth, fulfilment, etc
-
a person or thing that possesses such a capacity
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of potentiality
From the Medieval Latin word potentiālitās, dating back to 1615–25. See potential, -ity
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Recall that the internet had supposedly rewritten the book on investment value and human potentiality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Today’s teens face a yawning chasm of potentiality.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2024
During the workshops, the participants were asked to think about this technology from the perspective of IFGs, to imagine how this technology might be adopted in the future and to assess its future potentiality.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2024
“What was the lost potentiality? What symphonies weren’t written? What cures weren’t found? What children weren’t raised with love?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2023
A tadpole is potentially a frog, and as it grows it develops from potentiality to actuality.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
To be truly useful, an analogy must be precise not only in its actualities but in its potentialities.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2017
I would argue that Dylan writes his poetry in a way that takes full advantage of the potentialities of performance.
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2017
For them, foreclosing the potentialities of all future generations would be so catastrophic that we should strive to reduce even the tiniest probability that this could happen.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2014
The future is more interesting when it’s treated precisely as what it is: a set of potentialities and probabilities.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2013
His military aide, Navy Captain John H. Morse Jr., seconded his opinion: “You may detect some feeling that clean weapon potentialities have been over-stated and over-simplified recently,” he wrote Lawrence.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
