modality vs potential

modality

noun
  • The classification of propositions on the basis on whether they claim possibility, impossibility, contingency or necessity; mode. 

  • The way in which infrastructure and knowledge of how to use it give rise to a meaningful pattern of interaction (a concept in Anthony Giddens's structuration theory). 

  • Any of the senses (such as sight or taste) 

  • The organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations. 

  • The subject concerning certain diatonic scales known as musical modes. 

  • The quality of being limited by a condition. 

  • A particular way in which the information is to be encoded for presentation to humans, i.e. to the type of sign and to the status of reality ascribed to or claimed by a sign, text or genre. 

  • The inflection of a verb that shows how its action is conceived by the speaker; mood 

  • The fact of being modal. 

  • A method of diagnosis or therapy. 

potential

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

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

  • 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) 

adj
  • 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. 

  • Existing in possibility, not in actuality. 

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