principals

Noun

principal (countable and uncountable, plural principals)

1. (uncountable) The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.
   • A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal, and the rest covers interest.
2. (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Philippines, US) The chief administrator of a school.
   • The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal.1971, Louis Kaplan, Education and Mental Health, page 413

   Synonyms:

   headteacher, headmaster, headmistress

3. (Canada, UK) The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
   • Unlike the students, Principal Robertson, who now resided almost alone in the College, continued to use the accustomed route on his visits to the Old Town; and it “became the joke of the day that from being the principal gate it had become only a gate for the Principal.”⁵1967, University of Edinburgh Graduates′ Association, University of Edinburgh Journal, Volumes 23-24, page 314

   Synonyms:

   dean, rector

4. A legal person that authorizes another (the agent) to act on their behalf; or on whose behalf an agent or gestor in a negotiorum gestio acts.
   • When an attorney represents a client, the client is the principal who permits the attorney, the client′s agent, to act on the client′s behalf.

   Synonyms:

   client

5. The primary participant in a crime.
   • The accessories may be prosecuted, tried and punished, though the principal has not been prosecuted or has been acquitted.1915, Eugene Allen Gilmore, Wiliam Charles Wermuth, Modern American Law, page 125

   Synonyms:

   ringleader

6. Either party in a duel.
   • The old man raised his arm as though it had been palsied, and fired, of course without effect. The other principal immediately deloped, much to the satisfaction of my friend and all present.1868, Andrew Steinmetz, The Romance of Duelling in All Times and Countries, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, page 107

See all 18 meanings of principal