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principle

[prin-suh-puh

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct: a person of good moral principles.

a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived: the principles of modern physics.

a fundamental doctrine or tenet; a distinctive ruling opinion: the principles of the Stoics.

principles, a personal or specific basis of conduct or management: to adhere to one's principles; a kindergarten run on modern principles.

guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct: a person of principle.

EXPAND

an adopted rule or method for application in action: a working principle for general use.

a rule or law exemplified in natural phenomena, the construction or operation of a machine, the working of a system, or the like: the principle of capillary attraction.

the method of formation, operation, or procedure exhibited in a given case: a community organized on the patriarchal principle.

a determining characteristic of something; essential quality.

10.

an originating or actuating agency or force: growth is the principle of life.

11.

an actuating agency in the mind or character, as an instinct, faculty, or natural tendency: the principles of human behavior.

12.

Chemistry. a constituent of a substance, especially one giving to it some distinctive quality or effect.

13.

Obsolete. beginning or commencement.

COLLAPSE

Idioms

14.

in principle, in essence or substance; fundamentally: to accept a plan in principle.

15.

on principle,

according to personal rules for right conduct; as a matter of moral principle: He refused on principle to agree to the terms of the treaty.

according to a fixed rule, method, or practice: He drank hot milk every night on principle.

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having the form of a circle

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English, alteration of Middle French principe or Latin prīncipium, on the analogy of manciple. See principium

Can be confused: principal, principle (see usage note at principal; see synonym note at the current entry).

Synonyms
1, 2, 3. Principle, canon, rule imply something established as a standard or test, for measuring, regulating, or guiding conduct or practice. A principle is a general and fundamental truth that may be used in deciding conduct or choice: to adhere to principle. Canon, originally referring to an edict of the Church (a meaning that it still retains), is used of any principle, law, or critical standard that is officially approved, particularly in aesthetics and scholarship: canons of literary criticism. A rule, usually something adopted or enacted, is often the specific application of a principle: the golden rule. 2. theorem, axiom, postulate, proposition. 5. integrity, probity, rectitude, honor.

Usage note
See principal.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To principle

Example Sentences

Water harvesting is another xeriscape principle at work in this garden.

This form of the momentum principle works if the force is constant or if the time is very short.

You don't change that basic principle.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

principle (ˈprɪnsɪp^əl)

—n
1.	a standard or rule of personal conduct: a man of principle
2.	(often plural) a set of such moral rules: he'd stoop to anything; he has no principles
3.	adherence to such a moral code; morality: it's not the money but the principle of the thing; torn between principle and expediency
4.	a fundamental or general truth or law: first principles
5.	the essence of something: the male principle
6.	a source or fundamental cause; origin: principle of life
7.	a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the behaviour of a system: the principle of the conservation of mass
8.	an underlying or guiding theory or belief: the hereditary principle; socialist principles
9.	chem a constituent of a substance that gives the substance its characteristics and behaviour: bitter principle
10.	in principle in theory or essence
11.	on principle because of or in demonstration of a principle

usage Principle and principal are often confused: the principal (not principle) reason for his departure; the plan was approved in principle (not in principal)

Principle (ˈprɪnsɪp^əl)

—n
	Christian Science another word for God

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

principle

c.1380, "fundamental truth or proposition," from Anglo-Norm. principle, from O.Fr. principe, from L. principium (pl. principia) "a beginning, first part," from princeps (see prince). Meaning "origin, source" is attested from 1413. Sense of "general rule of conduct" is from

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c.1532. Used absolutely for (good or moral) principle from 1653.

"It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them." [Adlai Stevenson, speech, New York City, Aug. 27, 1952]

Hence principled "moral" (1697). Scientific sense of "general law of nature" is recorded from 1802.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

principle prin·ci·ple (prĭn'sə-pəl)
n.

A basic truth, law, or assumption.
A rule or law concerning the functioning of natural phenomena or mechanical processes.
One of the elements composing a chemical compound, especially one that gives some special quality or effect.
The essential ingredient in a drug.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

principle

see in principle; on principle.

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