Potential /(?)/

Po·ten·tial

Potential

Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious; influential. [Obs.]
Existing in possibility, not in actuality.
Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at ome time; actual existence, that it now is.
— Sir W. Hamilton.

Potential cautery: See under Cautery.
Potential energy: See the Note under Energy.
Potential mood: that form of the verb which is used to express possibility, liberty, power, will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can, must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can write.

Anything that may be possible; a possibility; potentially.
In the theory of gravitation, or of other forces acting in space, a function of the rectangular coordinates which determine the position of a point, such that its differential coefficients with respect to the coordinates are equal to the components of the force at the point considered; -- also called potential function, or force function. It is called also Newtonian potential when the force is directed to a fixed center and is inversely as the square of the distance from the center. (Math.)
The energy of an electrical charge measured by its power to do work; hence, the degree of electrification as referred to some standard, as that of the earth; electro-motive force. (Elec.)