Synonyms

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principal: first in authority; main participant; amount of a debt less interest
principle: basic truth or assumption

Principle

The noun principle has 6 senses (first 6 from tagged texts)

1. (14) principle, rule -- (a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; "their principles of composition characterized all their works")
2. (9) principle -- (a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles")
3. (7) principle -- (a basic truth or law or assumption; "the principles of democracy")
4. (4) principle, rule -- (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields")
5. (2) principle, precept -- (rule of personal conduct)
6. (2) rationale, principle -- ((law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines")

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Synonym: 6 senses of principle

Sense 1
principle, rule -- (a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; "their principles of composition characterized all their works")
=> generalization, generalisation, generality -- (an idea or conclusion having general application; "he spoke in broad generalities")

Sense 2
principle -- (a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles")
=> value -- (an ideal accepted by some individual or group; "he has old-fashioned values")

Sense 3
principle -- (a basic truth or law or assumption; "the principles of democracy")
=> law, natural law -- (a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society)

Sense 4
principle, rule -- (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields")
=> law, law of nature -- (a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature; "the laws of thermodynamics")

Sense 5
principle, precept -- (rule of personal conduct)
=> rule, prescript -- (prescribed guide for conduct or action)

Sense 6
rationale, principle -- ((law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines")
=> explanation -- (thought that makes something comprehensible)

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Coordinate Terms:

6 senses of principle

Sense 1
principle, rule -- (a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; "their principles of composition characterized all their works")
-> generalization, generalisation, generality -- (an idea or conclusion having general application; "he spoke in broad generalities")
=> principle, rule -- (a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; "their principles of composition characterized all their works")

Sense 2
principle -- (a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles")
-> value -- (an ideal accepted by some individual or group; "he has old-fashioned values")
=> introject -- ((psychoanalysis) a parental figures (and their values) that you introjected as a child; the voice of conscience is usually a parent's voice internalized)
=> principle -- (a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles")

Sense 3
principle -- (a basic truth or law or assumption; "the principles of democracy")
-> law, natural law -- (a rule or body of rules of conduct inherent in human nature and essential to or binding upon human society)
=> divine law -- (a law that is believed to come directly from God)
=> principle -- (a basic truth or law or assumption; "the principles of democracy")
=> sound law -- (a law describing sound changes in the history of a language)

Sense 4
principle, rule -- (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields")
-> law, law of nature -- (a generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature; "the laws of thermodynamics")
=> all-or-none law -- ((neurophysiology) a nerve impulse resulting from a weak stimulus is just as strong as a nerve impulse resulting from a strong stimulus)
=> principle, rule -- (a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; "the principle of the conservation of mass"; "the principle of jet propulsion"; "the right-hand rule for inductive fields")
=> Archimedes' principle, law of Archimedes -- ((hydrostatics) the apparent loss in weight of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid)
=> Avogadro's law, Avogadro's hypothesis -- (the principle that equal volumes of all gases (given the same temperature and pressure) contain equal numbers of molecules)
=> Bernoulli's law, law of large numbers -- ((statistics) law stating that a large number of items taken at random from a population will (on the average) have the population statistics)
=> Benford's law -- (a law used by auditors to identify fictitious populations of numbers; applies to any population of numbers derived from other numbers; "Benford's law holds that 30% of the time the first non-zero digit of a derived number will be 1 and it will be 9 only 4.6% of the time")
=> Bose-Einstein statistics -- ((physics) statistical law obeyed by a system of particles whose wave function is not changed when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle does not apply))
=> Boyle's law, Mariotte's law -- (the pressure of an ideal gas at constant temperature varies inversely with the volume)
=> Coulomb's Law -- (a fundamental principle of electrostatics; the force of attraction or repulsion between two charged particles is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the distance between them; principle also holds for magnetic poles)
=> Dalton's law, Dalton's law of partial pressures, law of partial pressures -- ((chemistry and physics) law stating that the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases equals the sum of the partial pressures of the gases in the mixture; the pressure of a gas in a mixture equals the pressure it would exert if it occupied the same volume alone at the same temperature)
=> distribution law -- ((chemistry) the total energy in an assembly of molecules is not distributed equally but is distributed around an average value according to a statistical distribution)
=> equilibrium law, law of chemical equilibrium -- ((chemistry) the principle that (at chemical equilibrium) in a reversible reaction the ratio of the rate of the forward reaction to the rate of the reverse reaction is a constant for that reaction)
=> Fechner's law, Weber-Fechner law -- ((psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity; based on early work by E. H. Weber)
=> Fermi-Dirac statistics -- ((physics) law obeyed by a systems of particles whose wave function changes when two particles are interchanged (the Pauli exclusion principle applies))
=> Gay-Lussac's law, Charles's law, law of volumes -- ((physics) the density of an ideal gas at constant pressure varies inversely with the temperature)
=> Henry's law -- ((chemistry) law formulated by the English chemist William Henry; the amount of a gas that will be absorbed by water increases as the gas pressure increases)
=> Hooke's law -- ((physics) the principle that (within the elastic limit) the stress applied to a solid is proportional to the strain produced)
=> Hubble's law, Hubble law -- ((astronomy) the generalization that the speed of recession of distant galaxies (the red shift) is proportional to their distance from the observer)
=> Kepler's law, Kepler's law of planetary motion -- ((astronomy) one of three empirical laws of planetary motion stated by Johannes Kepler)
=> Kirchhoff's laws -- ((physics) two laws governing electric networks in which steady currents flow: the sum of all the currents at a point is zero and the sum of the voltage gains and drops around any closed circuit is zero)
=> law of averages -- (a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance)
=> law of constant proportion, law of definite proportions -- ((chemistry) law stating that every pure substance always contains the same elements combined in the same proportions by weight)
=> law of diminishing returns -- (a law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness)
=> law of effect -- ((psychology) the principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences; behavior having good consequences tends to be repeated whereas behavior that leads to bad consequences is not repeated)
=> law of equivalent proportions, law of reciprocal proportions -- ((chemistry) law stating that the proportions in which two elements separately combine with a third element are also the proportions in which they combine together)
=> law of gravitation, Newton's law of gravitation -- ((physics) the law that states any two bodies attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them)
=> law of multiple proportions, Dalton's law -- ((chemistry) law stating that when two elements can combine to form more than one compound the amounts of one of them that combines with a fixed amount of the other will exhibit a simple multiple relation)
=> law of mass action -- ((chemistry) the law that states the following principle: the rate of a chemical reaction is directly proportional to the molecular concentrations of the reacting substances)
=> law of thermodynamics -- ((physics) a law governing the relations between states of energy in a closed system)
=> Mendel's law -- ((genetics) one of two principles of heredity formulated by Gregor Mendel on the basis of his experiments with plants; the principles were limited and modified by subsequent genetic research)
=> Newton's law of motion, Newton's law, law of motion -- (one of three basic laws of classical mechanics)
=> Ohm's law -- (electric current is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance; I = E/R)
=> Pascal's law, Pascal's law of fluid pressures -- (pressure applied anywhere to a body of fluid causes a force to be transmitted equally in all directions; the force acts at right angles to any surface in contact with the fluid; "the hydraulic press is an application of Pascal's law")
=> Pauli exclusion principle, exclusion principle -- (no two electrons or protons or neutrons in a given system can be in states characterized by the same set of quantum numbers)
=> periodic law, Mendeleev's law -- ((chemistry) the principle that chemical properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic numbers)
=> Planck's law -- ((physics) the basis of quantum theory; the energy of electromagnetic waves is contained in indivisible quanta that have to be radiated or absorbed as a whole; the magnitude is proportional to frequency where the constant of proportionality is give by Planck's constant)
=> Planck's radiation law -- ((physics) an equation that expresses the distribution of energy in the radiated spectrum of an ideal black body)
=> principle of relativity -- ((physics) a universal law that states that the laws of mechanics are not affected by a uniform rectilinear motion of the system of coordinates to which they are referred)
=> Stevens' law, power law, Stevens' power law -- ((psychophysics) the concept that the magnitude of a subjective sensation increases proportional to a power of the stimulus intensity)
=> Weber's law -- ((psychophysics) the concept that a just-noticeable difference in a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the original stimulus; "Weber's law explains why you don't notice your headlights are on in the daytime")

Sense 5
principle, precept -- (rule of personal conduct)
-> rule, prescript -- (prescribed guide for conduct or action)
=> bylaw, bye law -- (a rule made by a local authority to regulate its own affairs)
=> rubric -- (an authoritative rule of conduct or procedure)
=> order, rules of order, parliamentary law, parliamentary procedure -- (a body of rules followed by an assembly)
=> rule of evidence -- ((law) a rule of law whereby any alleged matter of fact that is submitted for investigation at a judicial trial is established or disproved)
=> Miranda rule -- (the rule that police (when interrogating you after an arrest) are obliged to warn you that anything you say may be used as evidence and to read you your constitutional rights (the right to a lawyer and the right to remain silent until advised by a lawyer))
=> principle, precept -- (rule of personal conduct)
=> golden rule -- (any important rule; "the golden rule of teaching is to be clear")
=> GIGO -- ((computer science) a rule stating that the quality of the output is a function of the quality of the input; put garbage in and you get garbage out)
=> dictate -- (an authoritative rule)
=> regulation, ordinance -- (an authoritative rule)
=> canon -- (a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or philosophy; "the neoclassical canon"; "canons of polite society")
=> etiquette -- (rules governing socially acceptable behavior)
=> protocol, communications protocol -- ((computer science) rules determining the format and transmission of data)

Sense 6
rationale, principle -- ((law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines")
-> explanation -- (thought that makes something comprehensible)
=> interpretation, interpreting, rendition, rendering -- (an explanation of something that is not immediately obvious; "the edict was subject to many interpretations"; "he annoyed us with his interpreting of parables"; "often imitations are extended to provide a more accurate rendition of the child's intended meaning")
=> rationale, principle -- ((law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature); "the rationale for capital punishment"; "the principles of internal-combustion engines")
=> key -- (something crucial for explaining; "the key to development is economic integration")
=> rationalization, rationalisation -- (the cognitive process of making something seem consistent with or based on reason)
=> theory -- (a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses"; "true in fact and theory")