principal
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɹɪnsɪpəl/
ipa: /ˈpɹɪnsəpəl/
homophone: principle
Forms: form: principals
form: principall
Etymology: From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
Senses: examples: text: A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal, and the rest covers interest.
text: In March 1902, I find in the statement of liabilities and assets £711 put down as arrears of interest, but there is no entry of arrears of principal.
ref: 1902, William Pember Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, published 2011, page 342:
text: 2012, Denis Clifford, Plan Your Estate, 11th Edition, NOLO, US, page 298,
For instance, in some states, dividends that have automatically been reinvested will be treated as principal.
text: If you know the principal amount, the interest rate, and the number of years the payments will be made, you can consult an amortization calculator or schedule to arrive at the monthly payment.
ref: 2012, Fred Steingold, Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business, page 88:
text: Coordinate term: interest
topics: business
finance
glosses: The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.
examples: text: The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal.
ref: 1971, Louis Kaplan, Education and Mental Health, page 413:
text: The problem was neatly summed up by one principal in Australia who said recently: ‘There is no incentive for me to develop my best teachers to become my successor.[…]’
ref: 2008, Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader: Developing Effective Leadership Through Managerial Accountability, page 212:
text: Now renamed Teaching Australia, its officers are undertaking exploratory steps in developing professional standards for school leaders. A National Standards Drafting Group of volunteer principals is currently drafting principal standards (Teaching Australia, 2007).
ref: 2009, Colin J. Marsh, Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum, page 132:
text: 2011, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2011-2012, page 45,
Principals are now being held more accountable for the performance of students and teachers, while at the same time they are required to adhere to a growing number of government regulations.
synonyms: headteacher
headmaster
headmistress
glosses: The chief administrator of a school.
examples: 1967, University of Edinburgh Graduates′ Association, University of Edinburgh Journal, Volumes 23-24, page 314,
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.”⁵
Coordinate term: bursar
synonyms: dean
rector
glosses: The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
examples: text: 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.
text: My principal sells metal shims.
text: The firm admitted the amount owed, but averred as an affirmative defense that it had hired the expert as an agent of a disclosed principal, the client.
ref: 1958, American Law Institute., Restatement of the Law, Second: Agency 2d, volume 7, page 533:
text: A food broker has been defined as an independent sales agent who performs the services of negotiating the sale of food and/or grocery products for and on account of the seller as principal.
ref: 1966, Pan American Union, The Marketing Structure for Selected Processed Food Products: In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, The Federal Republic of Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom, page 34:
text: 2009, California Continuing Education of the Bar, California Probate Code, page 375,
An attorney-in-fact has a duty to act solely in yhe interest of the principal and to avoid conflicts of interest.
topics: law
synonyms: client
glosses: 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.
examples: text: The accessories may be prosecuted, tried and punished, though the principal has not been prosecuted or has been acquitted.
ref: 1915, Eugene Allen Gilmore, Wiliam Charles Wermuth, Modern American Law, page 125:
topics: law
synonyms: ringleader
coordinate_terms: accessory
hypernyms: accomplice
glosses: The primary participant in a crime.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1868, Andrew Steinmetz, The Romance of Duelling in All Times and Countries, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, page 107:
glosses: Either party in a duel.
synonyms: proprietor
glosses: A partner or owner of a business.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A type of stop on a pipe organ consisting of flue pipes with a bright tonal quality. They are also sometimes referred to as a diapason.
topics: architecture
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The construction that gives shape and strength to a roof, generally a truss of timber or iron; or, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing.
examples: text: a birde whose principals be scarce growne out
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:
text: The first two feathers - Principals
ref: 1856, John Henry Walsh, Manual of British Rural Sports:
glosses: The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.
glosses: One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned
examples: text: Set two classes of monitors to question each other; so that one may try to outquestion the other. Explain to them the principal of every subject they have to teach.
ref: 1847, Great Britain. Committee on Education, Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, page 446:
glosses: An essential point or rule; a principle.
glosses: A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A security principal.
examples: text: Silverberg also gives the reader reader some excellent character insight; deep probes into the minds of all the principals bring the reader closer to the persons involved than might be thought possible with the plot so far removed from the realm of normality.
ref: 1973 August 4, J. Ralf Green, “The Hossenpfepper Column”, in Gay Community News, page 3:
glosses: A main character or lead actor.
Derived terms: sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal-agent problem
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal boy
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal city
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal ideal
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal ideal domain
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal ideal ring
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal investigator
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal part
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal photography
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal quantum number
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal record
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal root
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal square root
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: principal ultrafilter
sense: derived from adjective or noun
word: vice-principal
Related terms: principalship
PITI payment
prince
principality
principle