Word.ws English Dictionary

in principle

in principle prepositional phrase: with regard to the fundamentals, but not to the particulars.

Prepositional phrase

  1. With regard to the fundamentals, but not to the particulars.
    • agree in principle
    • approve in principle
  2. According to theory.
    • The Gleichschaltung of the party took longer, but was equally inevitable: the matter was settled in principle at the Tenth Congress, in March 1921, by Lenin's attack on factionalism and 'the luxury of studying shades of opinion', and his statement that 'we must make it quite clear that we cannot...1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...

in principle meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Malay

in principle in Tamil

கொள்கையளவில்

in principle in Malayalam

theoretically, in theory, on paper
തത്ത്വത്തിൽ, സെെദ്ധാന്തികമായി, താത്ത്വികമായി, രോഖാമൂലം
in essence, in general, on the whole
പൊതുവേ, പൊതുവായി, സാമാന്യമായി, ആകപ്പാടെ, അന്തസത്തയിൽ, സത്താപരമായി

in principle in Malay

with regard to fundamentals
pada dasarnya

Examples of in principle in a sentence

  • support in principle
  • In principle, I agree with your proposal, but we need more details.
  • The plan is acceptable in principle.
  • Servia must be punished, naturally, but to that, in principle, every nation in Europe is agreed.1920, Edward Phillips Oppenheim, The Great Impersonation, Chapter 25:

Origin of in principle

From in + principle (the noun ultimately from Latin principium). Compare French en principe, German im Prinzip, Dutch in principe, Swedish i princip, Danish i princippet.

Questions about in principle

What does in principle mean?
In principle means with regard to the fundamentals, but not to the particulars.
What is in principle in Tamil?
In principle in Tamil is கொள்கையளவில். See In principle meaning in Tamil.
How do you use in principle in a sentence?
support in principle
What part of speech is in principle?
In principle is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in principle in the dictionary

  1. in prejudice of
  2. in present
  3. in pride
  4. in prime twig
  5. in principal
  6. in principle
  7. in print
  8. in prison
  9. in private
  10. in profile
  11. in progress

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in principle (page history and authors); in principle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); in principle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-in principle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “in principle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_principle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.