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:
The answer, the author wrote, depended on whether “every boom carries with it the potentiality of a serious relapse.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 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
But, he added, “we know that the potentiality is there.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 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
People who in the past would have felt too afraid to experiment with their gender or sexuality for fear of the stigma that might entail may now be more willing to explore those potentialities.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2022
To be truly useful, an analogy must be precise not only in its actualities but in its potentialities.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2017
Let it float among its rich potentialities, forever young, forever letting process transcend resolution, and, like the poet’s own talent, at home in numerous places and seasons.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 31, 2017
No particles, no fluctuation, no laws, no principles, no potentialities, no states, no space, no time.
From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2014
Because my environment was bare and bleak, I endowed it with unlimited potentialities, redeemed it for the sake of my own hungry and cloudy yearning.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
