different between measure vs principle

English

Etymology

From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin m?ns?ra (“a measuring, rule, something to measure by”), from m?nsus, past participle of m?t?r? (“to measure, mete”). Displaced native Middle English m?te, mete (“measure”) (from Old English met (“measure”), compare Old English mitta (“a measure”)), Middle English ameten, imeten (“to measure”) (from Old English ?metan, ?emetan (“to mete, measure”)), Middle English hof, hoof (“measure, reason”) (from Old Norse h?f (“measure, reason”)), Old English m?þ (“measure, degree”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m???/
• (regional US) IPA^(key): /?me???/
• Rhymes: -???(?)
• Hyphenation: meas?ure; mea?sure

Noun

measure (plural measures)

1. A prescribed quantity or extent.
   1. (obsolete) Moderation, temperance. [13th-19th c.]
      • c. 1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:

        Mesure is medcynee · þou? þow moche ?erne.

      • 1611, Bible, Authorized Version, Jer. XXX:

        I will correct thee in measure, and will not leaue thee altogether vnpunished.

   2. A limit that cannot be exceeded; a bound. (Now chiefly in set phrases.) [from 14th c.]
      • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, V:

        Full to the utmost measure of what bliss Human desires can seek or apprehend.

      • 2009, Mike Selvey, The Guardian, 25 Aug 2009:

        They have gloried to this day, the tedious interminable big-screen replays of that golden summer irritating beyond measure.

   3. An (unspecified) portion or quantity. [from 16th c.]
      • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban (in The Guardian, 6 September 2013)[1]:

        It ended up being a bittersweet night for England, full of goals to send the crowd home happy, buoyed by the news that Montenegro and Poland had drawn elsewhere in Group H but also with a measure of regret about what happened to Danny Welbeck and what it means for Roy Hodgson's team going into a much more difficult assignment against Ukraine.

2. The act or result of measuring.
   1. (now chiefly cooking) A receptacle or vessel of a standard size, capacity etc. as used to deal out specific quantities of some substance. [from 14th c.]

   2. A standard against which something can be judged; a criterion. [from 14th c.]

   3. Any of various standard units of capacity. [from 14th c.]

   4. A unit of measurement. [from 14th c.]
      • 1993, Scientific American February 33.3:

        The fragments shrank by increments of about three kilodaltons (a measure of molecular weight).

   5. The size of someone or something, as ascertained by measuring. (Now chiefly in make to measure.) [from 14th c.]

      • The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

   6. (now rare) The act or process of measuring. [from 14th c.]

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   7. A ruler, measuring stick, or graduated tape used to take measurements. [from 16th c.]
   8. (mathematics, now rare) A number which is contained in a given number a number of times without a remainder; a divisor or factor. [from 16th c.]

      the greatest common measure of two or more numbers

   9. (geology) A bed or stratum. [from 17th c.]

      coal measures; lead measures

   10. (mathematics) A function that assigns a non-negative number to a given set following the mathematical nature that is common among length, volume, probability and the like. [from 20th c.]
3. Metrical rhythm.
   1. (now archaic) A melody. [from 14th c.]
   2. (now archaic) A dance. [from 15th c.]
   3. (poetry) The manner of ordering and combining the quantities, or long and short syllables; meter; rhythm; hence, a metrical foot. [from 15th c.]

      a poem in iambic measure

   4. (music) A musical designation consisting of all notes and or rests delineated by two vertical bars; an equal and regular division of the whole of a composition; a bar. [from 17th c.]
4. A course of action.
   1. (in the plural) Actions designed to achieve some purpose; plans. [from 17th c.]
   2. A piece of legislation. [from 18th c.]

Synonyms

• (musical designation): bar
• (unit of measurement): metric

Hyponyms

• (mathematics): positive measure, signed measure, complex measure, Borel measure, ?-finite measure, complete measure, Lebesgue measure

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

measure (third-person singular simple present measures, present participle measuring, simple past and past participle measured)

1. To ascertain the quantity of a unit of material via calculated comparison with respect to a standard.

2. To be of (a certain size), to have (a certain measurement)

3. To estimate the unit size of something.

4. To judge, value, or appraise.
5. To obtain or set apart; to mark in even increments.
6. (rare) To traverse, cross, pass along; to travel over.
   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds

     "And for a very sensible reason; there never was but one like her; or, that is, I have always thought so until to-day," replied the tar, glancing toward Natalie; "for my old eyes have seen pretty much everything they have got in this little world. Ha! I should like to see the inch of land or water that my foot hasn't measured."

7. To adjust by a rule or standard.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     To secure a contented spirit, you must measure your desires by your fortune and condition, not your fortunes by your desires

8. To allot or distribute by measure; to set off or apart by measure; often with out or off.

   • With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

   • That portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “measure”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• measure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• measure in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• measure at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Reaumes

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.