Potentially means in a way that could turn out to be so. Potentially dangerous, potentially useful, potentially the best.
It is a hedge, and it is doing more work than most readers notice: potentially dangerous covers everything from a real risk to a theoretical one. Careful writing says how likely and how bad rather than leaving the word to do it.
1adverbpotentiallyIn a way that could turn out to be so.
“The new drug could potentially save thousands of lives.”
potentially is a hedge.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁es-
Latin
potentialis
English
potential
English, today
potentially
Built from
From potential + -ly. potential comes from Latin potentialis, from Latin potentia (“power”), from potens (“powerful”). by surface analysis, potent + -ial.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA