different between direction vs principle

English

Etymology

From Middle English direccioun, from Old French direccion, from Latin d?r?cti?. Equivalent to direct +? -ion

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /d(a)????k.??n/
• Rhymes: -?k??n

Noun

direction (countable and uncountable, plural directions)

1. A theoretical line (physically or mentally) followed from a point of origin or towards a destination. May be relative (e.g. up, left, outbound, dorsal), geographical (e.g. north), rotational (e.g. clockwise), or with respect to an object or location (e.g. toward Boston).
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     Just before Warwick reached Liberty Point, a young woman came down Front Street from the direction of the market-house. When their paths converged, Warwick kept on down Front Street behind her, it having been already his intention to walk in this direction.

2. A general trend for future action.
3. Guidance, instruction.

4. The work of the director in cinema or theater; the skill of directing a film, play etc.

5. (dated) The body of persons who guide or manage a matter; the directorate.
6. (archaic) A person's address.
   • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society 1985, page 218:

     Her aunt Leonella was still at Cordova, and she knew not her direction.

Derived terms

Related terms

• direct

Translations

Anagrams

• cretinoid

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?r?cti?, d?r?cti?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.??k.sj??/

Noun

direction f (plural directions)

1. (spatial) direction
2. (figuratively) direction
3. government
4. (figuratively) the director of the administration/organisation
5. (occasional, figurative) the territory administered by a government

Derived terms

• direction assistée

Related terms

• directeur
• diriger

Descendants

• ? Turkish: direksiyon

Further reading

• “direction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Noun

direction (plural directiones)

1. direction (orientation, point where one is headed)
2. direction, leadership, control, supervision

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French principe, from Latin pr?ncipium (“beginning, foundation”), from pr?nceps (“first”); see prince.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??ns?p?l/, /?p??ns?p?l/
• Hyphenation: prin?ci?ple
• Homophone: principal

Noun

principle (plural principles)

1. A fundamental assumption or guiding belief.

   • Let us consider ‘my dog is asleep on the floor’ again. Frege thinks that this sentence can be analyzed in various different ways. Instead of treating it as expressing the application of __ is asleep on the floor to my dog, we can think of it as expressing the application of the concept
          my dog is asleep on __
     to the object
          the floor
     (see Frege 1919). Frege recognizes what is now a commonplace in the logical analysis of natural language. We can attribute more than one logical form to a single sentence. Let us call this the principle of multiple analyses. Frege does not claim that the principle always holds, but as we shall see, modern type theory does claim this.

2. A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.

3. (sometimes pluralized) Moral rule or aspect.

   I don't doubt your principles.

   You are clearly a person of principle.

   It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.

4. (physics) A rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.

   Bernoulli's Principle

   The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents two fermions from occupying the same state.

   The principle of the internal combustion engine

5. A fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.
   • 1845, William Gregory, Outlines of Chemistry

     Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.

6. (obsolete) A beginning.
7. A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of Being Religious

     The soul of man is an active principle.

8. An original faculty or endowment.
   • 1828, Dugal Stewart, The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man

     those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering

Usage notes

• Principle ("moral rule"), as a noun, is often confused with principal, which can be an adjective ("most important") or a noun ("school principal"). A memory aid to avoid this confusion is: "The principal alphabetic principle places A before E".

Synonyms

• (moral rule or aspect): tenet

Derived terms

Related terms

• prince
• principal
• principality

Translations

Verb

principle (third-person singular simple present principles, present participle principling, simple past and past participle principled)

1. (transitive) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.

   • Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired.

Further reading

• principle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• principle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.