1. the capacity to develop or come into existence.

2. electric potential, measured in volts: a property of an electric field equal to the energy needed to bring one unit of electric charge from infinity to a given point. The potential difference between two points is the driving force that causes a current to flow. Because messages in the nervous system are conveyed by electrochemical potentials, many kinds of potential are of importance in neuroscience and biological psychology, including the action potential, afterpotential, graded potential, local potential, membrane potential, postsynaptic potential, and resting potential.

3. in philosophy, see actual.