Other forms: principals
A principal is the head of a school or college. The school principal, sent to the principal, the principal's office.
This is the American term; British schools say head, headteacher, headmaster or headmistress, and principal is used for further-education colleges. The adjective means main or most important: the principal reason, the principal cities. In finance the principal is the original sum borrowed, as against the interest. Note the spelling: principal is a person or means main, and principle is a rule or belief — the school principal is your pal is the old memory trick.
1nounprincipalThe head of a school or college.
“The principal called both sets of parents in.”
2adjectivemainMain; most important.
“That was the principal reason and there were four others.”
3nounoriginalThe original sum of a loan, without interest.
“Ten years in and they had barely touched the principal.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
principal is a head, or a main thing.
Also accepted in games: headteacher, headmaster
Latin principalis means first in rank, from princeps, first — the same root as prince and principle's cousin. The two English spellings separated in the fifteenth century, and the confusion has never quite settled.
Proto-Indo-European
*keh₂p-
Latin
prīncipālis
Old French
principal
Middle English
principal
English, today
principal
From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA