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/prˈɪnsəpəl/ Listen

Principle

noun

A basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct. Synonym: rule.

A rule or standard especially of good behavior. "He will not violate his principles"

A basic truth or law or assumption.

A rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system. Synonym: rule. "The principle of jet propulsion" , "The right-hand rule for inductive fields"

Rule of personal conduct. Synonym: precept.

(law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature). Synonym: rationale. "The principles of internal-combustion engines"

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"Principle" Quotes from Famous Books

... to them, because while they are a sign of a scrofulous constitution, which may require special care in diet and preparations of iron and cod-liver oil, they are best left absolutely alone—neither poulticed nor lanced. The same principle of non-intervention applies equally to the swellings which sometimes form on two or three of the fingers in infancy, not involving the joints but producing great thickening and a hard swelling around the bone. These swellings disappear by degrees ...

— The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases • Charles West, M.D.

... read history, or can avail themselves of the experiences of ages, ought to know that it is not by severity or persecution that the affections of their fellow-subjects can be conciliated. We ourselves once knew a brutal ruffian, who was a dealer in fruit in the little town of Maynooth, and whose principle of correcting his children was to continue whipping the poor things until they were forced to laugh! A person was one day present when he commenced chastising one of them—a child of about seven—upon this barbarous ...

— Willy Reilly - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... By applying the principle to an electro-magnetic engine, Dr. Pacinotti produced the machine which we illustrate on the present page. The armature consists of a turned ring of iron, having around its circumference sixteen teeth of equal size and at equal angular distance apart, as shown in Fig. 1, forming between them ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 • Various

... nothing might be lost of his own notes, he has included many things not directly relating to Rabelais, is full of observations and curious remarks which are very useful additions to Le Duchat. One fault to be found with him is his further complication of the spelling. This he did in accordance with a principle that the words should be referred to their real etymology. Learned though he was, Rabelais had little care to be so etymological, and it is not his theories but those of the modern scholar ...

— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... started right with Elmira Snodgrass, she would have thawed out at once. Elmira is always lookin' for trouble as the sparks fly upwards, or thereabouts. She'd crawl through a barbed wire fence if she couldn't get at it any other way. She always chews a pill on principle, and then she calls it a dispensation of Providence, and wonders why she was ever born ...

— Hepsey Burke • Frank Noyes Westcott

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