adj / n · academic
potential
/pəˈtɛnʃəl/po·TEN·tial
Likely to develop or become; latent ability or capacity.
Examples
“The new method shows potential for reducing pollution in cities.”
“The athlete has the potential to compete at international level.”
“There is untapped potential in the local workforce.”
Band 8 sentence
“While the intervention is still at an early stage, it demonstrates genuine potential to improve literacy rates across disadvantaged areas.”
Collocations
- potential impact
- untapped potential
- potential to + verb
Word family
Common mistakes
There is potential solution to this problem.→There is a potential solution to this problem.
The new policy is potential to reduce congestion.→The new policy has the potential to reduce congestion.
It is potential that the project will fail.→It is possible that the project will fail.
Say it for a higher band
5possible→6likely→7+potential
Synonyms
possible
latent
Easily confused
possible
“It is possible that the experiment will fail.”
Related words
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In Sublist 2
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