Principal
['prɪnsəp(ə)l] or ['prɪnsəpl]
Definition
(noun.) the major party to a financial transaction at a stock exchange; buys and sells for his own account.
(noun.) the educator who has executive authority for a school; 'she sent unruly pupils to see the principal'.
(noun.) (criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement.
(noun.) capital as contrasted with the income derived from it.
(noun.) the original amount of a debt on which interest is calculated.
Typist: Susan--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Highest in rank, authority, character, importance, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case.
(a.) Of or pertaining to a prince; princely.
(n.) A leader, chief, or head; one who takes the lead; one who acts independently, or who has controlling authority or influence; as, the principal of a faction, a school, a firm, etc.; -- distinguished from a subordinate, abettor, auxiliary, or assistant.
(n.) The chief actor in a crime, or an abettor who is present at it, -- as distinguished from an accessory.
(n.) A chief obligor, promisor, or debtor, -- as distinguished from a surety.
(n.) One who employs another to act for him, -- as distinguished from an agent.
(n.) A thing of chief or prime importance; something fundamental or especially conspicuous.
(n.) A capital sum of money, placed out at interest, due as a debt or used as a fund; -- so called in distinction from interest or profit.
(n.) The construction which gives shape and strength to a roof, -- generally a truss of timber or iron, but there are roofs with stone principals. Also, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing.
(n.) In English organs the chief open metallic stop, an octave above the open diapason. On the manual it is four feet long, on the pedal eight feet. In Germany this term corresponds to the English open diapason.
(n.) A heirloom; a mortuary.
(n.) The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.
(n.) One of turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and center of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned.
(n.) A principal or essential point or rule; a principle.
Typist: Norton
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Chief, main, first, highest, supreme, leading, cardinal, most considerable, most important.
n. [1]. Chief, head, leader, chief actor.[2]. Master, head master.[3]. Employer, constituent.[4]. Capital sum (placed at interest).
Inputed by Cherie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Highest, first, main, leading, chief, primary, foremost, pre-eminent,prominent
ANT:Inferior, subordinate, secondary, supplemental, subject, auxiliary, minor
Edited by Ervin
Definition
adj. taking the first place: highest in rank character or importance: chief.—n. a principal person or thing: a head as of a school or college: one who takes a leading part: money on which interest is paid: (archit.) a main beam or timber: (law) the person who commits a crime or one who aids and abets him in doing it: a person for whom another becomes surety a person who being sui juris employs another to do an act which he is competent himself to do: (mus.) an organ-stop: (Shak.) the principal rafter.—n. Principal′ity supreme power: the territory of a prince or the country which gives title to him: (B.) a prince: (obs.) a power: (pl.) an order of angels the seventh in the hierarchy of Dionysius.—adv. Prin′cipally.—ns. Prin′cipalness the state of being principal or chief; Prin′cipalship position of a principal; Prin′cipate primary: a principality esp. the office of the ancient Roman emperors.
Typed by Jennifer
Examples
- Fish is one of the principal articles with which the North Americans trade to Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- You should know that I am not the principal here. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- What the Cape of Good Hope is between Europe and every part of the East Indies, Batavia is between the principal countries of the East Indies. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- He had been to the Opera, and knew the merits of the principal actors, preferring Mr. Kean to Mr. Kemble. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The principal productions of these towns,' says Mr. Pickwick, 'appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dockyard men. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- They are the work of servants and labourers who derive the principal part of their subsistence from some other employment. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- After small proprietors, however, rich and great farmers are in every country the principal improvers. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The greater the refractive power of the lens, the greater the bending, and the nearer the principal focus to the lens. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- The principal reason why natural abilities are esteemed, is because of their tendency to be useful to the person, who is possessed of them. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- In those days the principal expense of the sovereign seems to have consisted in the maintenance of his own family and household. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- But anyone who makes the tariff the principal concern of statecraft is, I believe, mistaking the hedge for the house. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The principal Greek works on science had been translated into Syrian. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The principal part of the outfit was the electric motor. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The more he suffers, the more averse he will be to me, having made me the principal representative of the great occasion of his suffering. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Ford's was the principal woollen-draper, linen-draper, and haberdasher's shop united; the shop first in size and fashion in the place. Jane Austen. Emma.
- Next moment they quietly eyed each other, as if they, the principals, had had no part in that expressive transaction. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- We may place our men, then, I think,' observed the officer, with as much indifference as if the principals were chess-men, and the seconds players. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
Edited by Claudette