English Dictionary > principal


"principal" Definition

  1. a. Highest in rank, authority, character, importance, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case.
  2. a. Of or pertaining to a prince; princely.
  3. n. A leader, chief, or head; one who takes the lead; one who acts independently, or who has controlling authority or influence; as, the principal of a faction, a school, a firm, etc.; -- distinguished from a subordinate, abettor, auxiliary, or assistant.
  4. n. The chief actor in a crime, or an abettor who is present at it, -- as distinguished from an accessory.
  5. n. A chief obligor, promisor, or debtor, -- as distinguished from a surety.
  6. n. One who employs another to act for him, -- as distinguished from an agent.
  7. n. A thing of chief or prime importance; something fundamental or especially conspicuous.
  8. n. A capital sum of money, placed out at interest, due as a debt or used as a fund; -- so called in distinction from interest or profit.
  9. n. The construction which gives shape and strength to a roof, -- generally a truss of timber or iron, but there are roofs with stone principals. Also, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing.
  10. n. In English organs the chief open metallic stop, an octave above the open diapason. On the manual it is four feet long, on the pedal eight feet. In Germany this term corresponds to the English open diapason.
  11. n. A heirloom; a mortuary.
  12. n. The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.
  13. n. One of turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and center of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned.
  14. n. A principal or essential point or rule; a principle.

More About principal

Position in dictionary: 78061 of 111710 words.
Word Type: a., a., n., n., n., n., n., n., n., n., n., n., n., n.,
Words that start with "principal": 5
Words that end with "principal": 1
Words that contain "principal": 5
Next words in dictionary: principalities, principality, principally, principalness, principate
Previous words in dictionary: princified, princewood, princesslike, princesse, princess

English Dictionary Definition of principal

Read all of this dictionary's definitions for the word "principal" on this page. Also learn the word type, other words that start with, end with or contain this word, the position in the dictionary and the next and previous terms. The historical definitions of the word "principal" found on this page is taken from the 1913 edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.