principal

Forms

1.Primary; most important; first level in importance.
- Smith is the principal architect of this design.
- The principal cause of the failure was poor planning.
- For many years, Oslo had no railway communication with Bergen and Stavanger, the principal seaports on the south-west coast.
2.Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued.
- Two is the principal square root of 4. Both −2 and +2 are square roots of 4.

1.The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.
- A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal, and the rest covers interest.
- In March 1902, I find in the statement of liabilities and assets £711 put down as arrears of interest, but there is no entry of arrears of principal.
- If you know the principal amount, the interest rate, and the number of years the payments will be made, you can consult an amortization calculator or schedule to arrive at the monthly payment.
2.The chief administrator of a school.
- The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal.
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.
- When an attorney represents a client, the client is the principal who permits the attorney, the client′s agent, to act on the client′s behalf.
- My principal sells metal shims.
- The firm admitted the amount owed, but averred as an affirmative defense that it had hired the expert as an agent of a disclosed principal, the client.

Uncommon· #3482

From Middle English principal

From Old French principal

From Latin prīncipālis.