Principal Meaning
/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjPrimary; most important; first level in importance.
adjOf or relating to a prince; princely.
Sentence Examples
The principal severely reproved the students whenever they made a mess in the hallway.
The students gathered at the call of the principal.
The principal reason for this omission is lack of time.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
As the head administrator, the ____ has the final say on school policies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school ____ addressed the students at the start of term and outlined the year's expectations.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In a word, the Epiſodes of Homer are complete Epiſodes; they are proper to the ſubject, because they are drawn from the ground of the fable; they are ſo joined to the principal action, that one is the neceſſary conſequence of the other, either truly or probably: and laſtly, they are imperfect members which do not make a complete and finiſhed body; for an Epiſode that makes a complete action, cannot be part of a principal action; as is eſſential to all Epiſodes."
— 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 186:
"For many years, Oslo had no railway communication with Bergen and Stavanger, the principal seaports on the south-west coast."
— 1956 April, H. A. Vallance, “To Oslo via Stavanger”, in Railway Magazine, page 213:
"The principal treasure of ths department, however, is the Stele of Hammurabi (1792—1750 B.C.), king of the first Babylonian kingdom, a basalt cylinder 2.25m/7ft 5in. inscribed with Hammurabi's laws written in Akkadian in cuneiform script."
— 1995, Madeleine Cabos, Baedeker Paris, page 105:
"In theory, there are the same number of principal components as there are variables, but in practice, usually only a few of the principal components need to be identified to account for most of the data variance."
— 2005, Ruth N. Collins, “Application of Phylogenetic Algorithms to Assess Rab Functional Relationships”, in Sidney P. Colowick, Alan Hall, editors, Methods in Enzymology, volume 403, page 22:
"I understand that feeling. Through 20 years in the industry, I've stayed on the staff engineer's path, and I'm now a senior principal engineer, parallel to a senior director on my company's career ladder."
— 2022, Tanya Reilly, The Staff Engineer's Path, O'Reilly, →ISBN:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
As the head administrator, the ____ has the final say on school policies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school ____ addressed the students at the start of term and outlined the year's expectations.