principal

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Primary; most important; first level in importance.
  2. Of or relating to a prince; princely.
  3. Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued.
noun
  1. The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.
  2. The chief administrator of a school.
  3. The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
  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.
  5. The primary participant in a crime.
  6. Either party in a duel.
  7. A partner or owner of a business.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.
  11. One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned
  12. An essential point or rule; a principle.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/ [ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pɫ̩] /ˈpɹɪn.sə.pəl/ [ˈpɹɪn.sə.pɫ̩] en-us-principal.ogg en-au-principal.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-principal.wav

Word forms

principal more principal most principal principall principals

Etymology

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.