principle

  • noun 1 a fundamental truth or proposition serving as the foundation for belief or action. 2 a rule or belief governing one’s personal behaviour. 3 morally correct behaviour and attitudes. 4 a general scientific theorem or natural law. 5 a fundamental source or basis of something. 6 Chemistry an active or characteristic constituent of a substance.

  — PHRASES in principle in theory. on principle because of one’s adherence to a particular belief.

  — ORIGIN Latin principium ‘source’, from princeps ‘first, chief’.

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