principal
prin·ci·pal/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/adjective, noun
principal is spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L, 3 syllables: prin·ci·pal. The wrong spelling people search most is pricipal: about 780 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 88 of all searches for the word. Principal is an adjective meaning “Primary; most important; first level in importance”.
How many letters and syllables are in principal?
| Letters | 9: P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: prin·ci·pal |
| In writing | 33 times per million words; the 2,888th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, pricipal, about 780 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell principal?
Principal is spelled P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 64 of the searches for principal in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is principal?
Principal appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce principal?
- US /ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/
- US [ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pɫ̩]
- US /ˈpɹɪn.sə.pəl/
Principal has 3 syllables, split prin·ci·pal in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-principal.ogg, En-au-principal.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-principal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with principal
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: principle (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with principal?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as principal from its last stressed vowel (/ɪnsɪpəl/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of principal
- more principal comparative
- most principal superlative
- principals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does principal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Primary; most important; first level in importance.
Smith is the principal architect of this design.
- 2
obsoleteOf or relating to a prince; princely.
- 3
Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued.
Two is the principal square root of 4. Both −2 and +2 are square roots of 4.
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
AustraliaCanadaUSThe chief administrator of a school.
- 3
CanadaUKThe chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
- 4
A legal person that authorizes another (the agent) to act on their behalf; or on whose behalf an agent or gestor in a negotiorum gestio acts.
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.
- 5
The primary participant in a crime.
- 6
Either party in a duel.
- 7
CanadaUSA partner or owner of a business.
- 8
A type of stop on a pipe organ consisting of flue pipes with a bright tonal quality. They are also sometimes referred to as a diapason.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Principal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | principal , directeur, directrice, principal (collège), proviseur, proviseure (lycée) |
| German | hauptsächlich, Haupt-, wesentlich , Anlagebetrag, Anlagesumme, Einsatz |
| Portuguese | principal , diretor |
| Spanish | principal , director, directora, principal de escuela, jefe de estudios , capital |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does principal come from?
From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).