Ask WordMum: Principal vs Principle
This month we’re being principled and talking about important things! Read on to learn more about these two words.
Our Question
What’s the difference between a principal and a principle?
WordMum Says
Here we have two words that sound identical yet have different meanings. It’s easy to use the wrong spelling, so how do we tell them apart? Let’s start with what each one is and means.
Principal (noun, adjective)
This word means the top person or thing in a hierarchy. A common usage is to refer to a principal of a school to mean the person in charge (also known as the headmaster or head teacher in some places).
Because this can refer to a person, one way to remember the correct spelling is that it has the word pal on the end.
Principle (noun, adjective)
This word refers to rules, tenets, or important guidelines. A principle can be more of the spirit of the rule, rather than a detailed legal law. Someone with principles tends to stick very closely to the rules they consider to be important.
Having principles or being principled implies a moral purity or focus. In D&D terms, it’s the lawful section of the alignment chart.
Principles can be a nebulous concept and represent an ideal that doesn’t always meet reality. You can sometimes equate it to how things work in theory. This is where we get the in principle vs in practice comparison (rule/theory vs reality).
How to remember which is which
The key I find to be useful in distinguishing which word I want to use is whether I am talking about a person or thing, in which case I want pal on the end.
Example Time!
Let’s put these principles to work and see how they work in practice!
The words were easy in principle
Wouldn’t it be nice if they were easy in practice, too? But if that was the case, we wouldn’t have this fun series of posts!
In this case, we’re talking about the rules of using words, rather than a person or thing. So no pals here and we want the ple ending.
The principal’s office was on the first floor
This may be a familiar concept for you! The school principal may not be your friend, but let’s put the pal on the end anyway because they’re still a person.
Are paladins always highly principled people?
I feel the answer to this question is probably ‘yes’, but let’s focus on the words! In this case, principled is being used as an adjective, and we’re talking about rules being important to paladins. Because we’re referring to rules rather than the person themself with this word, we don’t want the pal on paladin; we want the other ending.
The principal principle always confused her
This is talking about the first, top, or most important rule in a system or list of rules. Because the first word refers to a hierarchy (of things or people), we want the pal ending. The second word refers to the rules, so we want the other ending.
However, this is awkward to say and could be confusing for people, so you may want to avoid this particular wording.
I hope you can now use those words more confidently in principle and practice! If you have another way to remember how to use these words, I’d love to hear about them.
If you want to catch up on existing posts, check out dedicated page that lists them all for you, in alphabetical order. If this post, or any others, reminded you of similar tricky words you’d like help with, let WordMum know.
See you next month for more wordy wisdom!