potentiality
noun
Simple meaning
The inherent capacity for coming into being.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
puhtehnsheealuhteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pəˈtɛnʃiˈæləti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chiefly uncountable
The quality of being or having potential.
The inherent capacity for coming into being
An inherent capacity for growth or development.
An aptitude amenable to development; capability.
countable
An instance of potential: any given possibility.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The quality of being or having potential.
Used this way, potentiality is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.