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principal

Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/

The English word “principal” has 18 meanings listed here.

adjective

  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.
  13. A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.
  14. A security principal.
  15. A main character or lead actor.

Etymology

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

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.