# principle

Pronunciation: say "PRIN-si-puhl" /ˈpɹɪnsɪpəl/

## Noun

1. A fundamental assumption or guiding belief that shapes how a person reasons or behaves.
   - Simple: A basic idea or belief that guides how someone thinks or acts.
   - _The committee's recommendations were grounded in a single guiding principle._
   - _Scientists often disagree about which principles should shape public policy._
2. A moral rule or standard of right conduct that a person holds to.
   - Simple: A moral rule about what is right and wrong that someone tries to follow.
   - _He resigned on principle rather than approve the layoffs._
   - _She would not compromise her principles for a quick profit._
3. A rule that guides the choice among competing solutions to a problem.
   - Simple: A rule that helps you choose the best answer when there are many options.
   - _Engineers applied the principle of choosing the simplest design that met every requirement._
   - _When several fixes were possible, a guiding principle helped them rank the trade-offs._
4. A law of nature, or the basic concept behind how such laws operate or are applied.
   - Simple: A law of nature, or the basic idea behind how the laws of nature work.
   - _Archimedes' principle explains why a heavy steel ship can float._
   - _The principle of conservation of momentum governs every collision._
5. A source or origin; that from which something proceeds: its fundamental substance, energy, or ultimate cause.
   - Simple: The source or beginning that something comes from, and the basic thing that causes it.
   - _Some early philosophers held fire to be the primal principle of the universe._
   - _They sought the first principle from which all existence flows._
6. A fundamental essence, especially one that produces a particular quality.
   - Simple: The basic part of something that gives it a certain quality.
   - _Alchemists spoke of a fiery principle responsible for combustion._
   - _The sweet principle of the root was thought to give it its taste._
7. A chemical compound within plant or animal tissue that is characteristic of it and largely peculiar to it, defining that tissue's character: as nicotine does in tobacco.
   - Simple: A chemical found in a plant or animal that gives it its special character, like nicotine in tobacco.
   - _Quinine is the active principle that makes cinchona bark useful against fever._
   - _Researchers extracted the principle responsible for the herb's calming effect._
9. An innate faculty or natural endowment that a person possesses from the start.
   - Simple: A natural ability or power that a person is born with.
   - _Reason, the philosophers argued, is a principle native to all human minds._
   - _They regarded conscience as an original principle implanted in us._

## Verb

8. To instill principles in someone; to establish a person firmly in certain beliefs or rules of conduct.
   - Simple: To teach someone a set of beliefs or rules to live by.
   - _The old tutor sought to principle his pupils in the virtues of restraint and duty._
   - _They had principled the young heir in the strict doctrines of the church._

## Noun

10. The beginning or starting point of something. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The start or beginning of something.

## Origin

This word came through Middle English and Old French principe from Latin prīncipium ("beginning, foundation"), which comes from prīnceps ("first"). It is related to the word prince.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/principle (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).