Word.ws English Dictionary

principle

Syllables: prin·ci·pleUK/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/

principle noun: a fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief. Also the misspelling of principal.

Noun

principle (plural principles)

  1. A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
    • We need some sort of principles to reason from.
    • Let us consider ‘my dog is asleep on the floor’ again. Frege thinks that this sentence can be analyzed in various different ways. Instead of treating it as expressing the application of __ is asleep on the floor to my dog, we can think of it as expressing the application of the concept
      my dog is...2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Functions”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, archived from the original on 15 Dec 2012
    Synonyms:
    premise
  2. A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.
    • The principle of least privilege holds that a process should only receive the permissions it needs.
    • Mr. Genachowski proposed codifying the new principles with four existing principles issued several years ago by the F.C.C. They say that network operators cannot prevent users from accessing lawful Internet content, applications and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from...2009 September 22, Reuters, “F.C.C. Calls Open Internet Rules Vital”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020
  3. (sometimes pluralized) Moral rule or aspect.
    • I don't doubt your principles.
    • You are clearly a person of principle.
    Synonyms:
    tenet, value
  4. A rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.
    • Bernoulli's principle
    • The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents two fermions from occupying the same state.
  5. A fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.
    • Many believe that life is the result of some vital principle.
    1. A chemical compound within plant or animal tissue that is characteristic of it and more or less peculiar to it, such that it defines the character of that tissue from a human viewpoint (as for example nicotine in tobacco).
      • the active principle
      • Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.1845, William Gregory, Outlines of Chemistry
  6. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.
    • The soul of man is an active principle.1664, John Tillotson, “Sermon I. The Wisdom of Being Religious. Job XXVIII. 28.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B. Aylmer...
  7. An original faculty or endowment.
    • those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering1828, Dugald Stewart, The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man
  8. (obsolete) A beginning.
    • Doubting sad end of principle unsound.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2

Verb

principle (third-person singular simple present principles, present participle principling, simple past and past participle principled)

  1. (transitive) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.
    • Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 4, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 20

Also used as

principle is also the misspelling of principal.

principle meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

principle in Hindi

fundamental assumption
जड़सूत्र jaṛsūtra, असूल asūl, क़ायदा qāydā, नियम niyam

principle in Marathi

तत्त्व, तत्व, तत्त्वरचना

principle in Urdu

fundamental assumption
قاعِدَہ qā'ida, اَصْل asl

principle in Bengali

fundamental assumption
নিয়ম niẏom
More languagesFewer languages
principle in Telugu
సూత్రం, సూత్రము, సూత్రబద్ధం
principle in Malayalam
തത്ത്വം tattvaṁ
principle in Kannada
ತತ್ವ
principle in Punjabi
ਸਿਧਾਂਤ, ਅਸੂਲ
principle in Sanskrit
नियम niyamá, उपदेश upadeśa
principle in Pashto
اصل asul, قاعده qā'ida
principle in Tagalog
simulain
principle in Arabic
مَبْدَأ mabdaʔ, قاعِدَة qāʕida
principle in Malay
prinsip
principle in Indonesian
prinsip
principle in Thai
หลัก làk, คติ ká-dtì, กฎ gòt, นโยบาย ná-yoo-baai
principle in Vietnamese
nguyên lí, nguyên tắc
principle in Myanmar
နိယာမ ni.yama.

Examples of principle in a sentence

  • It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.
  • The principle of the internal combustion engine
  • Genachowski proposed codifying the new principles with four existing principles issued several years ago by the F.C.C.2009 September 22, Reuters, “F.C.C. Calls Open Internet Rules Vital”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020:
  • Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers.2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

All 40 example sentences with principle

Synonyms of principle

Forms of principle

Noun
pluralprinciples
Verb
third-person singular presentprinciples
present participleprincipling
past participleprincipled
pastprincipled

Plural of principle: principles

Origin of principle

From Middle English principle, from Old French principe, from Latin prīncipium (“beginning, foundation”), from prīnceps (“first”). By surface analysis, prīmus (“first”) + -ceps (“catcher”); the former ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- (“before”); see also prince.

Words formed from principle

Phrases with principle

58 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about principle

What does principle mean?
Principle means a fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
What is principle in Hindi?
Principle in Hindi is जड़सूत्र (jaṛsūtra), असूल (asūl), क़ायदा (qāydā). See Principle meaning in Hindi.
How do you use principle in a sentence?
It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.
What part of speech is principle?
Principle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce principle?
Principle is pronounced /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of principle?
The plural of principle is principles.

Words near principle in the dictionary

  1. principiation
  2. principiations
  3. principicide
  4. principium
  5. principium individuationis
  6. principle
  7. principle of charity
  8. principle of contradiction
  9. principle of excluded middle
  10. principle of explosion
  11. principle of indifference

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: principle (page history and authors); principle (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); principle (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); principle (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); principle (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.

Last updated:

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

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