Principal

How to spell principal

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce principal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does principal mean?

1. nounThe person with the highest authority in a school, college, or organisation.
2. nounThe original sum of money invested or lent, separate from the interest it earns or accrues.
3. adjectiveFirst in order of importance; main or chief.

Principal in a sentence

• noun

  She is the principal of the local primary school.

• noun

  Always pay off the principal before the interest builds up.

• adjective

  Traffic was the principal reason for the delay.

• noun

  She is the principal of a large secondary school in the city.

• noun

  Each monthly instalment reduces the principal a little more.

• adjective

  Their principal concern was keeping the project on budget.

Where does principal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin principalis, meaning 'first in rank' or 'chief'. That adjective was built on princeps, which literally described the person who takes first place, formed from primus 'first' and capere 'to take'. English borrowed it through Old French during the 1300s, at first as an adjective meaning 'main' or 'most important', and later as a noun for the chief person in an organisation and the original sum of money in a loan. The very same princeps root still lives inside the everyday words 'prince' and 'principle', and that shared ancestry is exactly why principal and principle are so easily confused in writing. A useful memory hook: the school principal is your 'pal', and money grows from the princiPAL.

How the word is built

• princip- (chief)
• -al

Words that sound like principal

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• principle: A fundamental truth, law, or moral rule that guides behaviour or explains how something works.