it's the principle of the thing definition, it's the principle of the thing meaning | English dictionary

Search also in: Web News Encyclopedia Images



1    a standard or rule of personal conduct  
a man of principle     
2    often pl   a set of such moral rules  
he'd stoop to anything, he has no principles     
3    adherence to such a moral code; morality  
it's not the money but the principle of the thing, torn between principle and expediency     
4    a fundamental or general truth or law  
first principles     
5    the essence of something  
the male principle     
6    a source or fundamental cause; origin  
principle of life     
7    a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the behaviour of a system  
the principle of the conservation of mass     
8    an underlying or guiding theory or belief  
the hereditary principle, socialist principles     
9      (Chem)   a constituent of a substance that gives the substance its characteristics and behaviour  
bitter principle     
10    in principle   in theory or essence  
11    on principle   because of or in demonstration of a principle  
     (C14: from Latin principium beginning, basic tenet)  
Principle and principal are often confused: the principal (not principle) reason for his departure; the plan was approved in principle (not in principal)  

anthropic principle  
      n     (Astronomy)   the cosmological theory that the presence of life in the universe limits the ways in which the very early universe could have evolved  
Archimedes' principle  
      n   a law of physics stating that the apparent loss in weight of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid  
Bernoulli's principle   , law  
      n     (Physics)   the principle that in a liquid flowing through a pipe the pressure difference that accelerates the flow when the bore changes is equal to the product of half the density times the change of the square of the speed, provided friction is negligible  
     (C19: named after Daniel Bernoulli)  
bitter principle  
      n   any of various bitter-tasting substances, such as aloin, usually extracted from plants  
Carnot principle  
      n   the principle that the efficiency of a reversible heat engine depends on the maximum and minimum temperatures of the working fluid during the operating cycle and not on the properties of the fluid  
cosmological principle  
      n     (Astronomy)   the theory that the universe is uniform, homogenous, and isotropic, and therefore appears the same from any position  
d'Alembert's principle  
      n     (Physics)   the principle that for a moving body the external forces are in equilibrium with the inertial forces; a generalization of Newton's third law of motion  
     (C18: named after Jean Le Rond d'Alembert)  
exclusion principle  
      n      See       Pauli exclusion principle  
Fermat's principle  
      n     (Physics)   the principle that a ray of light passes from one point to another in such a way that the time taken is a minimum  
first principle  
      n   usually pl  
1    one of the fundamental assumptions on which a particular theory or procedure is thought to be based  
2    an axiom of a mathematical or scientific theory  
Gause's principle  
      n     (Ecology)   the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche  
     (named after G. F. Gause, 20th-century Soviet biologist)  
greatest happiness principle  
      n   the ethical principle that an action is right in so far as it promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number of those affected  
   See       utilitarianism  
Heisenberg uncertainty principle  
      n      a more formal name for       uncertainty principle  
indeterminacy principle  
      n      another name for       uncertainty principle  
Le Chatelier's principle  
      n     (Chem)   the principle that if a system in chemical equilibrium is subjected to a disturbance it tends to change in a way that opposes this disturbance  
     (C19: named after H. L. Le Chatelier (1850--1936), French chemist)  
Pauli exclusion principle  
      n     (Physics)   the principle that two identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state in a body such as an atom; sometimes shortened to exclusion principle  
Peter Principle  
      n   the. the theory, usually taken facetiously, that all members in a hierarchy rise to their own level of incompetence  
     (C20: from the book The Peter Principle (1969) by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, in which the theory was originally propounded)  
pleasure principle  
   See also       hedonism  
      n     (Christian Science)      another word for       God  
principle of economy  
      n      the. another name for       Ockham's razor  
principle of indifference  
      n   the principle that, in the absence of any reason to expect one event rather than another, all the possible events should be assigned the same probability  
   See       mathematical probability  
principle of least action  
      n   the principle that motion between any two points in a conservative dynamical system is such that the action has a minimum value with respect to all paths between the points that correspond to the same energy,   (Also called)    Maupertuis principle  
reality principle  
      n     (Psychoanal)   control of behaviour by the ego to meet the conditions imposed by the external world  
uncertainty principle  
      n   the. the principle that energy and time or position and momentum, cannot both be accurately measured simultaneously. The product of their uncertainties is always greater than or equal to h/4π, where h is the Planck constant,   (Also called)    Heisenberg uncertainty principle, indeterminacy principle  
verification principle  
      n   (in the philosophy of the logical positivists) the doctrine that nontautologous statements are meaningful only if it is in principle possible to establish empirically whether they are true or false  
English Collins Dictionary - English Definition & Thesaurus  
Collaborative Dictionary     English Definition
English expression
a small digital image or icon used to express or convey an idea, a mood or an emotion in electronic communication. It's a loanword from japoneese coming from e 'picture'+ moji 'letter, character'.
[Internet] Althoug being coincidental, the resemblance of the term 'emoji' to the english word 'emoticon' (a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as :-)) helps its memorability. 😊
neighborhood considered dangerous, where it's not recommended to go, especially as an outsider
it's said when someone has done things in the wrong order
Or sign up in the traditional way

  • Create your own vocabulary list
  • Contribute to the Collaborative Dictionary
  • Improve and share your linguistic knowledge