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Principle vs Figure - What's the difference?

principle | figure |

As verbs the difference between principle and figure

is that principle is to equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct while figure is .

As a noun principle

is a fundamental assumption.

As an adjective figure is

figurative.

principle

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fundamental assumption.
  • * {{quote-web, date=2011-07-20, author=Edwin Mares, site=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, title= Propositional Functions
  • , accessdate = 2012-07-15}}
    Let us consider ‘my dog is asleep on the floor’ again. Frege thinks that this sentence can be analyzed in various different ways. Instead of treating it as expressing the application of __ is asleep on the floor'' to ''my dog'', we can think of it as expressing the application of the concept
         ''my dog is asleep on __''
    to the object
         ''the floor''
    (see Frege 1919). Frege recognizes what is now a commonplace in the logical analysis of natural language. ''We can attribute more than one logical form to a single sentence
    . Let us call this the principle of multiple analyses . Frege does not claim that the principle always holds, but as we shall see, modern type theory does claim this.
  • A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.
  • (usually, in the plural) Moral rule or aspect.
  • (physics) A rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
  • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles , attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
  • A fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.
  • * Gregory
  • Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.
  • (obsolete) A beginning.
  • * (Edmund Spenser)
  • Doubting sad end of principle unsound.
  • A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.
  • * Tillotson
  • The soul of man is an active principle .
  • An original faculty or endowment.
  • * Stewart
  • those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering

    Usage notes

    Principle is always a noun ("moral rule"), but it is often confused with (principal), which can be an adjective ("most important") or a noun ("school principal"). Consult both definitions if in doubt. Incorrect usage: * He is the principle musician in the band * She worked ten years as school principle A mnemonic to avoid this confusion is "The principal'' alphabetic ''principle'' places ''A'' before ''E ".

    Synonyms

    * (moral rule or aspect) tenet

    Derived terms

    * agreement in principle * anthropic principle * Aufbau principle * Bernoulli's principle * correspondence principle * cosmological principle * Dilbert principle * dormitive principle * equivalence principle * extractive principle * first principles * Huygens' principle * IBM Pollyanna Principle * Le Chatelier's principle * Mach's principle * matter of principle * Matthew principle * Mitchell principle * on principle * Pareto principle * Pauli exclusion principle * Peter principle * pigeonhole principle * precautionary principle * principle of least action * principle of substitutivity * principled stance * programming principle * reciprocity principle * strong equivalence principle * superposition principle * uncertainty principle * verifiability principle

    Verb

  • To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.
  • * L'Estrange
  • Governors should be well principled .
  • * Locke
  • Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired.

    figure

    English

    (wikipedia figure)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A drawing or diagram conveying information.
  • *
  • The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
  • a figure''' in bronze; a '''figure cut in marble
  • * Shakespeare
  • a coin that bears the figure of an angel
  • A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures .}}
  • The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
  • He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
  • * Dryden
  • I made some figure there.
  • * Blackstone
  • gentlemen of the best figure in the county
  • (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
  • * Law
  • that he may live in figure and indulgence
  • A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
  • *
  • A numeral.
  • A number.
  • *
  • A shape.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Flowers have all exquisite figures .
  • *
  • A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
  • The muslin was of a pretty figure .
  • A dance figure, a complex dance move(w).
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness,
  • A figure of speech.
  • * Macaulay
  • to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing
  • (logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
  • (astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
  • (Johnson)
  • (music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
  • (Grove)
  • (music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.
  • Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the noun) * academy figure * action figure * authority figure * big figure * dark figure * cut a figure * father figure * figure dash * figure eight * figurehead * figureless * figure loom * figure of eight * figure of merit * figure of speech * figure poem * figure skating * four-figure * hate figure * hourglass figure * lay figure * Lissajous figure * mother figure * musical figure * plane figure * public figure * significant figure * snow figure * stick figure * terminal figure * text figure * three-figure * two-figure

    Verb

    (mainly US)
  • To solve a mathematical problem.
  • To come to understand.
  • I can't figure if he's telling the truth or lying.
  • To be reasonable.
  • To enter, be a part of.
  • (obsolete) To represent by a figure, as to form or mould; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.
  • * Prior
  • If love, alas! be pain I bear, / No thought can figure , and no tongue declare.
  • To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
  • (obsolete) To indicate by numerals.
  • * Dryden
  • As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
  • To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
  • * Shakespeare
  • whose white vestments figure innocence
  • (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
  • * Shakespeare
  • In this the heaven figures some event.
  • (music) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
  • (music) To embellish.
  • Derived terms

    * go figure * prefigure * figure out (US)

    Statistics

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