as in possibility
something that can develop or become actual
would like to see a colony on the moon as an actuality and not merely a potentiality
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Recent Examples of potentiality
In a striking parallel to the 1990s, epochal thinking about the potentialities of a high technology society has once again upended politics.
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Jacob Bruggeman & Casey Eilbert / Made By History, TIME, 3 Mar. 2025
Practically, then, the translator reads with an eye to understanding the affordances offered by a text—to re-creating its potentialities, rather than merely offering a lexical equivalent.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
Meanwhile, parsing-of-totality depends on advancing sensing techniques to harness atoms’ deeper patterns and potentiality.
—Pravir Malik, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
If Vietnam damaged the credibility of experts, experts were no more inclined to value the democratic potentialities of the public.
—Daniel Bessner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Apr. 2017
See All Example Sentences for potentiality
Jacob Bruggeman & Casey Eilbert / Made By History, TIME, 3 Mar. 2025
Practically, then, the translator reads with an eye to understanding the affordances offered by a text—to re-creating its potentialities, rather than merely offering a lexical equivalent.
—Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
Meanwhile, parsing-of-totality depends on advancing sensing techniques to harness atoms’ deeper patterns and potentiality.
—Pravir Malik, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
If Vietnam damaged the credibility of experts, experts were no more inclined to value the democratic potentialities of the public.
—Daniel Bessner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Apr. 2017
See All Example Sentences for potentiality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for potentiality
Noun
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But the defending champions feel no need to panic — even before the team’s upcoming four-game, 10-day roadtrip with the possibility of not having Jonquel Jones available for it.—
Fiifi Frimpong,
New York Daily News,
21 June 2025
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In terms of the Flyers’ willingness to move some of their cache of draft picks, Brière didn’t sound all that sure about that possibility, either.—
Arpon Basu,
New York Times,
21 June 2025
Noun
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The good news is that renewable energy not only has the potential to save money for consumers, according to the Department of Energy, but also make money for investors, with an International Energy Agency report finding clean energy outperformed fossil fuels for both 5 and 10 year periods.—
Morgan Simon,
Forbes.com,
20 June 2025
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Odd Andersen | Afp | Getty Images Greenland has little interest in harnessing its massive resource potential to become a top mining country.—
Sam Meredith,
CNBC,
20 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Potentiality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/potentiality. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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