Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use principle in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Principle means a fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief. Example: “We need some sort of principles to reason from.”

Examples of principle by meaning

nounA fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.

  • We need some sort of principles to reason from.

nounA 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.
  • 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

nounMoral rule or aspect.

  • I don't doubt your principles.
  • You are clearly a person of principle.
  • It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.

nounA rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.

  • The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents two fermions from occupying the same state.
  • The principle of the internal combustion engine
  • 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

nounA fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.

  • Many believe that life is the result of some vital principle.

nounA chemical compound within plant or animal tissue that is characteristic of it and more or less peculiar to it, such...

  • the active principle

More sentences with principle

  • In his Pensées, Pascal mentioned some first principles recognized within his metaphysics: space, time, motion, and number.From the entry metaphysics
  • She's been chained to her principles since she was 18, it's unlikely you can convince her otherwise.From the entry chain
  • The Supreme Court upheld the principle of one person, one vote.From the entry vote
  • Hume believes that principles of association steer the imagination of artists.From the entry steer
  • The principle was recognized by some of the early Greek philosophers who embodied it in their systems.From the entry embody
  • He approached the moral dilemma casuistically, not abstractly from first principles.From the entry casuistically
  • In principle, I agree with your proposal, but we need more details.From the entry in principle
  • The rules and regulations don't answer the question. First principles are required.From the entry first principles
  • A principle of fiscal Hawkery was to never allow a planned deficit.From the entry hawkery
  • The brakes work on the principle of hydraulics.From the entry hydraulics
  • I never act contrary to my principles.From the entry contrary
  • These ‘three principles of connexion’ compose the framework of principles in Hume's account of the association of ideas.From the entry framework
  • He will be appointed on the principle of Buggins's turn.From the entry Buggins's turn
  • The principle of binominal nomenclature is important in the ICZN.From the entry binominal
  • These two principles coapply in this case.From the entry coapply
  • Lathi shares its basic principles with other martial arts.From the entry lathi
  • To speak of air having weight was a contradiction of the principle that air was naturally levitative and upward-tending.From the entry levitative
  • Doing this is against my principles.From the entry against
  • The plan is acceptable in principle.From the entry in principle
  • Political principles are rarely absolute, as political logic holds an imperfect result by compromise is better than a theoretically perfect abstention from the political process in the opposition.From the entry political
  • The existence of a zero-point energy (i.e., the existence of a non-zero lower limit to the energy of a quantum-mechanical system) is a consequence of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.From the entry zero-point energy
  • But what they have done since is ruthlessly improve and refine it, using Kaizen principles.2023 June 28, Sir Michael Holden, “Comment: 'There will be more Nunehams': We need some serious Kaizen... and we need it now”, in RAIL…. From the entry kaizen
  • The framework was therefore Kantian: it was based on the principle of peace through exchange.2023 September 30, Patrick Wintour, quoting Zaki Laïdi, “‘No turning back’: how the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU”, in The…. From the entry Kantian
  • The principle of civil procedure means that only two parties can participate in the process.2023, Jacek Gordon, English in Law. From the entry assession
  • Nevertheless, the hoary capitalist principle of innovation and competition leading to consolidation and monopoly still operated.2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 5, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The…. From the entry hoary
  • And even in ordinary times, conspicuous consumption violates the principle of detachment.2022, W. David Marx, chapter 5, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN. From the entry on the nose
  • These creedal principles deeply shaped American politics during the heyday of the neoliberal order.2022, Gary Gerstle, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Introduction. From the entry creedal
  • Relationists and non-relationists differ in their assessment of the scope of the principles of justice.2022, David Álvarez, João Cardoso Rosas, The Idea of Human Rights Revisited. From the entry relationist
  • He cares deeply about judicial restraint, another Scalian principle that is increasingly ignored by activist conservatives.2022 March 20, Noah Feldman, “Scalia’s Ghost Is Haunting Conservative Justices”, in Bloomberg. From the entry Scalian

Meaning of principle

  1. noun A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
  2. noun A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.
  3. noun Moral rule or aspect.

Full definition of principle

Questions about principle in a sentence

How do you use principle in a sentence?
Principle is used as a noun and verb. For example: “We need some sort of principles to reason from.”
What is a short sentence with principle?
“the active principle”
What does principle mean?
Principle means a fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: principle (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use principle in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/principle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.