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potentially

adverb

Simple meaning

Possibly, in the future.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

puhtehnshuhlee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

pəˈtɛnʃəli

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adverb

  1. In a manner showing much potential; with the possibility of happening in a given way.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: In a manner showing much potential; with the possibility of happening in a given way.

Used this way, potentially 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use potentially

  • “He is potentially dangerous.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

potentially dangerouspotentially usefulpotentially importantpotentially harmfulpotentially seriouspotentially fatalleast potentiallypotentially available

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • potentialnounBase word

    The inherent capacity for coming into being.

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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.