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Another word for principal

a-z
Adjective

  1. Most important, influential, or significant

      1. Of or relating to financial assets, especially being or related to those financial assets that add to the net worth of a business:
      2. Most important or most serious; principal; chief
      3. First and foremost; principal:
      1. Bright-red, like the robe of a cardinal
      2. Of foremost importance; paramount:
      3. Of main importance; principal; chief
      1. Highest, as in rank or office; foremost
      2. Highest in rank, authority, or office:
      3. Most important or significant; main; principal
      1. Preceding all others in a series; before any other; 1st
      2. Corresponding in order to the number one.
      3. Ranking above all others, as in importance or quality; foremost:
      1. More prominent or important than others, especially in position or rank:
      2. First in rank or importance; leading
      1. Controlling; essential; important
      2. Of crucial importance; significant:
      1. Principal; chief
      2. Having a position in the lead; foremost:
      3. Ranking first.
      1. Most important; principal.
      2. (Nautical) Connected to or located near the mainmast:
      3. Chief in size, extent, importance, etc.; principal; leading; specif., designating a large central unit on which subsidiaries or branches depend
      1. Characterized by major intervals, scales, etc.
      2. Designating a triad having intervals of a major third between the lower two pitches, and a minor third between the upper two pitches
      3. Equivalent to the distance between the tonic note and the second or third or sixth or seventh degrees of a major scale or mode:
      1. First in rank, order, or importance:
      1. Highest in rank, power, or authority:
      2. Of chief concern or importance:
      1. First in status or importance; principal or chief:
      1. (Ornithology) Designating or of the large, stiff feathers on the last section, or hand, of a bird's wing
      2. Relating to the replacement of only one of several atoms or groups in a compound, such as an amine in which one valence of the functional group is taken by a carbon atom.
      3. First in importance; chief; principal; main
      1. From which others are derived; fundamental; basic
      2. Being the most desired or suitable example of something:
      3. First or highest in rank or importance; main:
      1. Of, situated at, or being the top; uppermost, highest, greatest, or foremost
      2. Of the highest degree, quality, rank, or amount:
      3. Of or having to do with the Top 40 or the kind of popular music they represent
    See also:

    important

  2. Having or exercising authority

      1. Highest, as in rank or office; foremost
      2. Most important or influential:
      3. Highest in rank, authority, or office:
      1. Of, relating to, or intended for the head. Often used in combination:
      2. Placed at the top or the front:
      3. Foremost in rank or importance:
    See also:

    over

Noun

  1. The main performer in a theatrical production

    See also:

    performing-arts

© Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Another word for principal

Modifier
  1. Antonyms:
Noun
      1. One who is highest in rank or authority; a leader.
      2. (--- Nautical) The chief engineer of a ship.
      3. The head or leader of a group, organization, etc.; person of highest title or authority
      1. The working end of a tool or implement:
      2. A single animal:
      3. A person who leads, rules, or is in charge; a leader, chief, or director:
      1. Used as a title for a man who serves as the head or presiding officer of certain societies, clubs, orders, or institutions.
      2. A man who owns a pack of hounds or is the chief officer of a hunt.
      3. The man who serves as the head of a household.
    See also:

    administrator

Synonym Study

  • Capital is applied to that which is ranked at the head of its kind or class because of its importance or its special significance the capital city
  • Foremost suggests being first by having moved ahead to that position the foremost statesman of our time
  • Leading may stress capacity for guiding, conducting, or drawing others as well as implying a position first in importance or rank a leading light of the community
  • Main , in strict usage, is applied to the thing, often part of a system or an extensive whole, that is preeminent in size, power, importance, etc. the main line of a railroad
  • Chief is applied to a person or thing first in rank, authority, importance, significance, etc., and usually connotes subordination of all others chief executive officer, the chief advantages
  • Principal is applied to the thing or person having precedence over all others by reason of size, position, importance, etc. the principal rivers of Africa
© WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD® ROGET’S A-Z THESAURUS by Charlton Laird and the editors of Webster’s New World dictionaries. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Sentence Examples

  • The principal part of the city lies between these two streams, with its great plaza in the centre.

  • Sanford of the Inquirer, the principal Unitarian organ.

  • The movement of these wrinkles formed the principal play of expression on his face.

  • It is hunted chiefly for the sake of the ivory of its immense tusks, of which it yields the principal source of supply to the European market, and the desire to obtain which is rapidly leading to the extermination of the species.

  • The principal crops are wheat, pulse, maize, millet, with some cotton and sugar-cane.

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Words near principal in the Thesaurus