Noun

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

A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal , and the rest covers interest.

* 1902 , William Pember Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand , Volume 1, 2011, Cambridge University Press, page 342,

In March 1902, I find in the statement of liabilities and assets £711 put down as arrears of interest, but there is no entry of arrears of principal .

* 2012 , Denis Clifford, Plan Your Estate , 11th Edition, NOLO, US, page 298,

For instance, in some states, dividends that have automatically been reinvested will be treated as principal .

* 2012 , Fred Steingold, Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business , page 88,

If you know the principal amount, the interest rate, and the number of years the payments will be made, you can consult an amortization calculator or schedule to arrive at the monthly payment.

(North America, Australia, New Zealand) The chief administrator of a school.

* 1971 , Louis Kaplan, Education and Mental Health , page 413,

The important administrative figure to the teacher is the school principal .

* 2008 , Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader: Developing Effective Leadership Through Managerial Accountability , page 212,

The problem was neatly summed up by one principal in Australia who said recently: ‘There is no incentive for me to develop my best teachers to become my successor.’

* 2009 , Colin J. Marsh, Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum , page 132,

Now renamed Teaching Australia, its officers are undertaking exploratory steps in developing professional standards for school leaders. A National Standards Drafting Group of volunteer principals' is currently drafting ' principal standards (Teaching Australia, 2007).

* 2011 , U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2011-2012 , page 45,

Principals are now being held more accountable for the performance of students and teachers, while at the same time they are required to adhere to a growing number of government regulations.

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

* 1967 , University of Edinburgh Graduates? Association, University of Edinburgh Journal , Volumes 23-24, page 314,

Unlike the students, Principal' Robertson, who now resided almost alone in the College, continued to use the accistomed route on his visits to the Old Town; and it “became the joke of the day that from being the principal gate it had become only a gate for the ' Principal .”⁵

(legal) One who directs another (the agent) to act on one?s behalf.

''When an attorney represents a client, the client is the principal who permits the attorney, the client?s agent, to act on the client?s behalf.

* 1958 , American Law Institute. Restatement of the Law, Second: Agency 2d'', Volume 7 , page 533,

The firm admitted the amount owed, but averred as an affirmative defense that it had hired the expert as an agent of a disclosed principal , the client.

* 1966 , Pan American Union, The Marketing Structure for Selected Processed Food Products: In Sweden, Denmark, Norway, The Federal Republic of Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom , page 34,

A food broker has been defined as an independent sales agent who performs the services of negotiating the sale of food and/or grocery products for and on account of the seller as principal .

* 2009 , California Continuing Education of the Bar, California Probate Code , page 375,

An attorney-in-fact has a duty to act solely in yhe interest of the principal and to avoid conflicts of interest.

(legal) The primary participant in a crime.

* 1915 , Eugene Allen Gilmore, Wiliam Charles Wermuth, Modern American Law , page 125,

The accessories may be prosecuted, tried and punished, though the principal has not been prosecuted or has been acquitted.

A company represented by a salesperson.

My principal sells metal shims.

(senseid) (North America) 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.

(Spenser)

One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre 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.

Noun

(en noun)

A controlled behaviour; self-control.

* Rogers

The most perfect, who have their passions in the best discipline , are yet obliged to be constantly on their guard.

An enforced compliance or control.

* '>citation

A systematic method of obtaining obedience.

* C. J. Smith

Discipline aims at the removal of bad habits and the substitution of good ones, especially those of order, regularity, and obedience.

A state of order based on submission to authority.

* Dryden

Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, / Obey the rules and discipline of art.

A punishment to train or maintain control.

* Addison

giving her the discipline of the strap

A set of rules regulating behaviour.

A flagellation as a means of obtaining sexual gratification.

A specific branch of knowledge or learning.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline : too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}

(Bishop Wilkins)

A category in which a certain art, sport or other activity belongs.