Potential can be either good or bad. Studying hard increases the potential for success, but wet roads increase the potential for accidents. But when a person or thing "has potential", we always expect something good from it in the future.

Potential energy is the energy that something has because of its position and structure, not because of its movement. Electric potential is a measure of the power of electrical energy, …

It describes something or someone that has the power to become something. A potential success is not yet a success but could be if circumstances are right. When a situation has the potential for disaster, it could turn bad easily.

You use potential to say that someone or something is capable of developing into the particular kind of person or thing. The firm has identified 60 potential customers. If something has …

Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent or undeveloped: a potential problem; a substance with many potential uses. 2. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a verbal construction with auxiliaries such as may or can; for example, it may snow. n. 1.

Doctors are excited about the new drug's potential benefits. Critics say the factory poses a potential threat to the environment. He is a potential candidate for president. The project has potential risks/advantages. If you study hard, there is a greater potential for success. Scientists are exploring the potentials of the new drug.

Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple release of energy by objects to the realization of abilities in people.

Potential definition: Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent or undeveloped.

to say that someone or something is capable of developing into the particular kind of person or thing. If something has , it is capable of being useful or successful in the future.

Synonyms for POTENTIALS: possibilities, potentialities, prospects, capabilities, probabilities, eventualities, likelihoods, potencies; Antonyms of POTENTIALS: realities, actualities, certainties