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Opinion vs Principle - What's the difference?

opinion | principle | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between opinion and principle

is that opinion is obstinacy in holding to one's belief or impression; opiniativeness; conceitedness while principle is a beginning.

As nouns the difference between opinion and principle

is that opinion is a belief that a person has formed about a topic or issue while principle is a fundamental assumption.

As verbs the difference between opinion and principle

is that opinion is to have or express as an opinion while principle is to equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.

opinion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A belief that a person has formed about a topic or issue.
  • I would like to know your opinions on the new systems.
    In my opinion , white chocolate is better than milk chocolate.
    Every man is a fool in some man's opinion .
    Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived. -
  • The judgment or sentiment which the mind forms of persons or things; estimation.
  • * 1606 , , I. vii. 32:
  • I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people.
  • * South
  • Friendship gives a man a peculiar right and claim to the good opinion of his friend.
  • (obsolete) Favorable estimation; hence, consideration; reputation; fame; public sentiment or esteem.
  • * 1597 , , V. iv. 47:
  • Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion .
  • * Milton
  • This gained Agricola much opinion , who enterprises.
  • (obsolete) Obstinacy in holding to one's belief or impression; opiniativeness; conceitedness.
  • * 1590 , , V. i. 5:
  • Your reasons at / dinner have been sharp and sententious, pleasant / without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious / without impudency, learned without opinion , and / strange without heresy.
  • The formal decision, or expression of views, of a judge, an umpire, a doctor, or other party officially called upon to consider and decide upon a matter or point submitted.
  • (European Union law) a judicial opinion delivered by an Advocate General to the European Court of Justice where he or she proposes a legal solution to the cases for which the court is responsible
  • Derived terms

    * advisory opinion * be of the opinion * in my humble opinion/IMHO * in my opinion * in one's opinion * opinion poll * public opinion * scientific opinion * second opinion

    See also

    * fact

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To have or express as an opinion.
  • * 1658', But if (as some '''opinion ) King ''Ahasuerus'' were ''Artaxerxes Mnemon'' [...], our magnified ''Cyrus'' was his second Brother — Sir Thomas Browne, ''The Graden of Cyrus (Folio Society 2007, p. 166)
  • Statistics

    * ----

    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.