potential

adjective

• having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future:a campaign to woo potential customers

noun

• 1 [mass noun] latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness:a young broadcaster with great potential [count noun]:the potentials of the technology were never wholly controllable
• (often potential for/to do something) the possibility of something happening or of someone doing something in the future:pesticides with the potential to cause cancer

• 2 Physics the quantity determining the energy of mass in a gravitational field or of charge in an electric field: a change in gravitational potential [count noun]:measurements of induced electrical potentials