PRINCIPLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Principle

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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

... go to waste for want of use! One good cavalry officer the less; that was bad enough. But had not Ottensen spoken as though these were quite usual practices? It looked as though this purely external unwarlike training of the army were being erected into a principle. ...

— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein

... wife's family belong; nay, it is so hard for me to relinquish such childish habits, that, when unable to procure a Christmas tree for the two "Eves" I spent on the Nile, I decked a young palm and fastened candles on it. My mother's permission that Knecht Ruprecht should visit us was contrary to her principle never to allow us to be frightened by images of horror. Nay, if she heard that the servants threatened us with the Black Man and other hobgoblins of Berlin nursery tales, she was always very angry. The arguments by which my wife induced me to banish the Christmas ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Upon the principle of making hay while the sun shone, the little imprisoned party worked hard amongst the walrus, and with so much success, that there seemed to be no doubt about the cargo defraying the expenses of the expedition, and, if it ...

— Steve Young • George Manville Fenn

... was commonplace enough, and hackneyed enough, could Ashe but have known it. There was the usual patter about spiritual and physical freedom, about faith and perfection, "the Deific principle as a rule of health," a jumble of things medical and things physical, things profane and things holy mingled in a strange and unintelligible jargon. By the time that the eager-eyed speaker had talked for an hour Ashe ...

— The Puritans • Arlo Bates

... this ray which the Moyenites use is a variation of the principle used in the intricate machinery of Professor Maniel, though how they render it visible I do not know. But it doesn't matter, and may be only a blind! You'll note that when the black streak, or the golden ray, strikes anything that thing instantly disintegrates. A certain pitch ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 • Various

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