a priori vs potential

a priori

adj
  • Presumed without analysis. 

  • Self-evident, intuitively obvious. 

  • Based on hypothesis and theory rather than experiment or empirical evidence. 

  • Developed entirely from scratch, without deriving it from existing languages. 

adv
  • In a way based on theoretical deduction rather than empirical observation. 

potential

adj
  • Existing in possibility, not in actuality. 

  • A potential flow is an irrotational flow. 

  • Referring to a verbal construction of form stating something is possible or probable. 

  • A potential field is an irrotational (static) field. 

noun
  • The gravitational potential: the radial (irrotational, static) component of a gravitational field, also known as the Newtonian potential or the gravitoelectric field. 

  • A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable. 

  • The work (energy) required to move a reference particle from a reference location to a specified location in the presence of a force field, for example to bring a unit positive electric charge from an infinite distance to a specified point against an electric field. 

  • Currently unrealized ability (with the most common adposition being to) 

How often have the words a priori and potential occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )