Po-tĕn’tial1, a.
a. [It. potenziale, Sp. & Pr. potencial, Fr. potentiel. See POTENCY.] 1. Being potent; having latent power; endowed with energy adequate to a result; efficacious. [Obs.] A voice potential, As double as the duke’s. Shak. 2. Existing in possibility, not in act. This potential and imaginary materia prima can not exist without form. Raleigh. Potential existence means merely that the thing may be at some time; actual existence, that it now is. Sir W. Hamilton. Potential cautery (Surg.), the destruction of vitality, and formation of an eschar by a caustic substance which does not act immediately on application, as does the actual cautery by means of the red-hot iron. — Potential mode (Gram.), that form of the verb which is used to express the power, possibility, liberty, or necessity of an action or of being; as, I may go; he can write.