<p>Though hydrogen bonding has been discussed for over a century now, no hydrogen bonding potential has been proposed yet. In recent years, Shahi and Arunan [<i>Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.</i> <b>16</b>(42), 22935–22952 (2014)] and Hays <i>et al.</i> [<i>Nature Chem</i> <b>14</b>(7), 811–815 (2022)] reported results that suggested that HNC has stronger intermolecular interaction than HCN, though both have nearly identical dipole moment. Theoretical estimation on charges indicated that the H in HNC has a higher charge than that in HCN. This suggested that the HCN/HNC interaction could be charge-dipole and the potential could show <i>r</i>^<i>−2</i> dependence. We examined the potential energy curves of HCN/HNC complexes with HB acceptors, including HF, HCN, HNC, C₂H₄, C₂H₂, and Ar through MP2/(full)/aug-cc-PVTZ level of calculations. The initial three acceptors possess significant dipole moments, the subsequent two exhibit a quadrupole moment, and the last acceptor, Ar, features a spherical electron cloud on average. Depending on the acceptor, the interactions could vary as charge-dipole, charge-quadrupole, and charge-induced dipole. Our results show that the attractive part of the potentials do vary as r⁻ⁿ as expected for these interactions, though all of them have a geometry that could be characterized as hydrogen bonded. This work confirms that hydrogen bonding cannot be attributed to any single physical force.</p> Graphical Abstract <p>Hydrogen bond potential energy curve for the HF⋯HCN and C2H2⋯HCN complexes show 1/r² and 1/r³ dependence as expected for chargedipole and charge-quadrupole interactions. This shows that the common description of hydrogen bonding as dipole-dipole interaction is inaccurate</p>