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==Adjective==
[[File:Potential_smaller.jpg|right|frame]]
*1. Possible as opposed to actual; having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future; latent; prospective.
*2. Medicine. Designating (the use of) a cauterizing agent other than a red-hot implement, esp. a caustic substance; contrasted with actual (cf. CAUTERY n. 1). Chiefly in potential cautery. Now hist.
*3. Possessing potency or [[power]]; potent, powerful, mighty, strong; commanding. Now rare.
*4. [[Grammar]]. Designating or relating to a part of a verb used to express possibility. Chiefly in potential [[mood]] n. a mood, such as the subjunctive, used to [[expression|express]] possibility. Also fig. with [[humor]]ous play on [[sense]] A. 3 (e.g., quots. 1680, 1823). With reference to French grammar, sometimes applied to the conditional.
*5. [[Physics]]. Designating a property or attribute that a [[body]] possesses by [[virtue]] of its position or [[state]], but which is only manifested or released under [[change]]d conditions. Chiefly in POTENTIAL [[Energy|ENERGY]] n. , potential temperature n. at Special uses.
==Noun==
*1. Med. A cauterization performed using an agent other than a red-hot implement, esp. a caustic substance; such a substance. Cf. sense A. 2. Obs. rare.
*2. Something which is possible, as opposed to actual; capacity for growth, achievement, future development or use; resources able to be used or developed.
*3. Something that gives strength or ability, a power. Obs.
*4. Grammar. The potential mood; a grammatical construction in this mood.
*5. Physics.
:a. A [[quantity]] of [[energy]], [[work]], etc., expressed by a potential [[function]] and associated with each point in a [[gravitation]]al, electrical, or other field, being equivalent to that required to move a body, charge, etc., from the given point to a reference point whose potential is [[Arbitrary|arbitrarily]] defined as zero (e.g. the [[earth]], [[infinity]]); such a quantity considered as a [[quality]] or condition of the [[matter]], electricity, etc., in question. Also: a potential function; (more widely) any [[function]] from which a [[vector]] field F can be derived by differentiation, esp. (more fully scalar potential) a scalar function such that F = - grad , and (more fully vector potential) a vector field A such that F = curl A. action, electric, gravitational, ionization, oxidation, velocity potential, etc.: see the first element. [Introduced in 1828, by G. Green, with special reference to electricity
:b. More fully thermodynamic potential. Any of various thermodynamic functions [[mathematically]] [[analogous]] to electric and gravitational potentials, including Gibbs free [[energy]], Helmholtz free energy, enthalpy, internal energy, and [[chemical]] potential.
[[Category: General Reference]]
==Adjective==
[[File:Potential_smaller.jpg|right|frame]]
*1. Possible as opposed to actual; having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future; latent; prospective.
*2. Medicine. Designating (the use of) a cauterizing agent other than a red-hot implement, esp. a caustic substance; contrasted with actual (cf. CAUTERY n. 1). Chiefly in potential cautery. Now hist.
*3. Possessing potency or [[power]]; potent, powerful, mighty, strong; commanding. Now rare.
*4. [[Grammar]]. Designating or relating to a part of a verb used to express possibility. Chiefly in potential [[mood]] n. a mood, such as the subjunctive, used to [[expression|express]] possibility. Also fig. with [[humor]]ous play on [[sense]] A. 3 (e.g., quots. 1680, 1823). With reference to French grammar, sometimes applied to the conditional.
*5. [[Physics]]. Designating a property or attribute that a [[body]] possesses by [[virtue]] of its position or [[state]], but which is only manifested or released under [[change]]d conditions. Chiefly in POTENTIAL [[Energy|ENERGY]] n. , potential temperature n. at Special uses.
==Noun==
*1. Med. A cauterization performed using an agent other than a red-hot implement, esp. a caustic substance; such a substance. Cf. sense A. 2. Obs. rare.
*2. Something which is possible, as opposed to actual; capacity for growth, achievement, future development or use; resources able to be used or developed.
*3. Something that gives strength or ability, a power. Obs.
*4. Grammar. The potential mood; a grammatical construction in this mood.
*5. Physics.
:a. A [[quantity]] of [[energy]], [[work]], etc., expressed by a potential [[function]] and associated with each point in a [[gravitation]]al, electrical, or other field, being equivalent to that required to move a body, charge, etc., from the given point to a reference point whose potential is [[Arbitrary|arbitrarily]] defined as zero (e.g. the [[earth]], [[infinity]]); such a quantity considered as a [[quality]] or condition of the [[matter]], electricity, etc., in question. Also: a potential function; (more widely) any [[function]] from which a [[vector]] field F can be derived by differentiation, esp. (more fully scalar potential) a scalar function such that F = - grad , and (more fully vector potential) a vector field A such that F = curl A. action, electric, gravitational, ionization, oxidation, velocity potential, etc.: see the first element. [Introduced in 1828, by G. Green, with special reference to electricity
:b. More fully thermodynamic potential. Any of various thermodynamic functions [[mathematically]] [[analogous]] to electric and gravitational potentials, including Gibbs free [[energy]], Helmholtz free energy, enthalpy, internal energy, and [[chemical]] potential.
[[Category: General Reference]]
