Definition of "geopotential"

geopotential

noun
plural geopotentials
1. (meteorology) The work that must be done at a given altitude in raising a unit mass from sea level to that altitude against the earth's gravitational field.
  Quotations
  It might sound puzzling that the ageostrophic geopotential (or the ageostrophic pressure in z-coordinate) has no impact on the evolution of the vorticity of a quasi-geostrophic disturbance and yet it affects the perturbation kinetic energetics (not globally but locally).
  2004, Zhu Xun, Li Xiaofan, Cai Ming, Observation, Theory And Modeling Of Atmospheric Variability, page 13