principal🔊

Primary; most important; first level in importance.

(obsolete, Latinism) Of or relating to a prince; princely.

(mathematics) Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued.

(finance) The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand) The chief administrator of a school.

(UK, Canada) The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.

(law) 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.

(law) The primary participant in a crime.

Either party in a duel.

(Canada, US) A partner or owner of a business.

(music) A diapason, a type of organ stop on a pipe organ.

(architecture, engineering) The construction that gives shape and strength to a roof, generally a truss of timber or iron; or, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing.

The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing.

One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and center of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned.

(obsolete) An essential point or rule; a principle.

A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.

(computing) A security principal.

A main character or lead actor.