Potentiality is a rather formal noun for an ability or quality that is there, but has not grown into something real yet. Teachers and writers like it when they want to talk about what a person, a place, or an idea could become, not what it is today. You might hear that a child has great potentiality for music, or that a new medicine has several potentialities — meaning several ways it might help, still unproven. In everyday talk, most people just say potential, which is shorter and feels less stiff; potentiality turns up more in essays, reports, and careful discussion. Though actually, in philosophy classes it has a sharper job: it names the “could-be” side of something, set against the “already-is” side. The plural potentialities is common when someone lists different possible futures rather than one big gift.

潛能、潛力（比 potential 更書面、更抽象）