noun
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latent or inherent capacity or ability for growth, fulfilment, etc
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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
Classic Hollywood directors like David Lean and Douglas Sirk knew the amorous potentiality contained in the human face, harnessing its elastic electricity to illuminate soaring embraces and aching breakups.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
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
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
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 Mr. Curtis, the revisions represent “an ongoing process of completing the work, in a way, of continuing to work out the potentialities that are latent in the piece.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2015
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
Definitions 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.
