principal.
Primary; most important; first level in importance.
Meaning & usage
Primary; most important; first level in importance.
Smith is the principal architect of this design.
The principal cause of the failure was poor planning.
Of or relating to a prince; princely.
Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued.
Two is the principal square root of 4. Both −2 and +2 are square roots of 4.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
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.
The chief administrator of a school.
The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
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.
My principal sells metal shims.
The primary participant in a crime.
Either party in a duel.
A partner or owner of a business.
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.
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.
The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.
One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned
An essential point or rule; a principle.
A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.
A security principal.
A main character or lead actor.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.