Primary vs. Principal: Know the Difference
By Shumaila Saeed || Updated on December 25, 2023
"Primary" refers to the first in order or importance, while "Principal" means the most important or chief in a group or a sum of money.
Key Differences
Primary denotes something that is first in order, rank, or importance. It often refers to the main or most important among others. Principal, on the other hand, is used to denote the foremost or leading individual in a group, or the most significant element in a set.
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Dec 07, 2023
In many contexts, Primary is used to describe the initial or chief cause, reason, or element in a series. Principal is used to describe the main person responsible for an organization or the main part of an investment.
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Dec 07, 2023
The term Primary is frequently used in education to refer to the first years of formal schooling. In contrast, Principal refers to the head of a school or an organization.
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Dec 07, 2023
In financial terms, Primary can refer to the most basic form of a financial instrument. Principal, in finance, refers to the original sum of money invested or loaned.
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Dec 07, 2023
When discussing order of events or elements, Primary is used to denote the first or most foundational, while Principal is used to describe the main or most consequential aspect of a matter.
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Dec 07, 2023
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Comparison Chart
Usage in Education
Refers to early years of schooling
Refers to the head of a school
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Dec 07, 2023
Financial Context
Basic form of a financial instrument
Original sum of money invested or loaned
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Position
Initial or foundational element
Leading or most significant element
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Primary and Principal Definitions
Primary
Earliest in time or sequence.
The primary stages of the project are crucial.
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Dec 07, 2023
Principal
Chief, most important.
The principal aim of the project is to aid development.
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Dec 07, 2023
Primary
Fundamental, basic.
Reading and writing are primary skills in education.
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Dec 07, 2023
Principal
Predominant or main.
The principal ingredient in the dish is tomatoes.
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Dec 07, 2023
Primary
Of primary source, direct.
The primary evidence was key to solving the case.
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Primary
Main or principal.
The primary reason for the delay was bad weather.
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Dec 07, 2023
Principal
Of, relating to, or being financial principal, or a principal in a financial transaction.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
One who holds a position of presiding rank, especially the head of an elementary school, middle school, or high school.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Occurring first in time or sequence; earliest
The primary stages of the project.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
A main participant in a situation, especially a financial transaction.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
A person having a leading or starring role in a performance, such as the first player in a section of an orchestra.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Not derived from anything else; basic or original
The interviews and other primary materials in the study are more interesting than the analysis.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
An amount of capital originally borrowed or invested, as opposed to the interest paid or accruing on it.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The most significant part of an estate, as opposed to minor or incidental components.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(Geology) Characteristic of or existing in a rock at the time of its formation.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The person having prime responsibility for an obligation as distinguished from one who acts as surety or as an endorser.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Having a word root or other linguistic element as a basis that cannot be further analyzed or broken down. Used of the derivation of a word or word element.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Referring to present or future time. Used as a collective designation for various present and future verb tenses in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
(Architecture) Either of a pair of inclined timbers forming the sides of a triangular truss for a pitched roof.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
Primary; most important; first level in importance.
Smith is the principal architect of this design.
The principal cause of the failure was poor planning.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(Electronics) Of, relating to, or constituting an inducting current, circuit, or coil.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Of, relating to, or designating the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
(mathematics) 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.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Of or relating to agriculture, forestry, the industries that extract natural materials from the earth, or the products so obtained
A primary commodity.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
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.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Relating to, or having a carbon atom that is attached to only one other carbon atom in a molecule.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Relating to the replacement of only one of several atoms or groups in a compound, such as an amine in which one valence of the functional group is taken by a carbon atom.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
(legal) 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.
My principal sells metal shims.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
A meeting of the registered voters of a political party for the purpose of nominating candidates and for choosing delegates to their party convention.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The construction that gives shape and strength to a roof, generally a truss of timber or iron; or, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
A preliminary election in which the registered voters of a political party nominate candidates for office.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
A celestial body, especially a star, relative to other bodies in orbit around it.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
Highest in rank, authority, character, importance, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case.
Wisdom is the principal thing.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
First or earliest in a group or series.
Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
A leader, chief, or head; one who takes the lead; one who acts independently, or who has controlling authority or influence; as, the principal of a faction, a school, a firm, etc.; - distinguished from a subordinate, abettor, auxiliary, or assistant.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The chief actor in a crime, or an abettor who is present at it, - as distinguished from an accessory.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(chemistry) Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
A thing of chief or prime importance; something fundamental or especially conspicuous.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(medicine) Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(medicine) Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The educator who has executive authority for a school;
She sent unruly pupils to see the principal
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The major party to a financial transaction at a stock exchange; buys and sells for his own account
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
Most important element;
The chief aim of living
The main doors were of solid glass
The principal rivers of America
The principal example
Policemen were primary targets
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The head of a school.
The principal announced the new school policy.
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Dec 07, 2023
Primary
(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
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Oct 19, 2023
Principal
The original sum of money invested or loaned.
The principal of the loan needs to be repaid first.
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Dec 07, 2023
Principal
First in order of importance.
Her principal concern was the well-being of her team.
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Dec 07, 2023
Primary
(military) The first stage of a thermonuclear weapon, which sets off a fission explosion to help trigger a fusion reaction in the weapon's secondary stage.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(aviation) A radar return from an aircraft (or other object) produced solely by the reflection of the radar beam from the aircraft's skin, without additional information from the aircraft's transponder.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(medicine) Primary site of disease; original location or source of the disease.
Unknown primary
Most common primaries
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
(electronics) A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
To challenge (an incumbent sitting politician) for their political party's nomination to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election, especially one that is more ideologically extreme.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
First in order of time or development or in intention; primitive; fundamental; original.
The church of Christ, in its primary institution.
These I call original, or primary, qualities of body.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
First in order, as being preparatory to something higher; as, primary assemblies; primary schools.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
First in dignity or importance; chief; principal; as, primary planets; a matter of primary importance.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
That which stands first in order, rank, or importance; a chief matter.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
One of the large feathers on the distal joint of a bird's wing. See Plumage, and Illust. of Bird.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
A primary planet; the brighter component of a double star. See under Planet.
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
One of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Coil forming the part of an electrical circuit such that changing current in it induces a current in a neighboring circuit;
Current through the primary coil induces current in the secondary coil
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondhand;
Primary goals
A primary effect
Primary sources
A primary interest
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Not derived from or reducible to something else; basic;
A primary instinct
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Most important element;
The chief aim of living
The main doors were of solid glass
The principal rivers of America
The principal example
Policemen were primary targets
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Of or being the essential or basic part;
An elementary need for love and nurturing
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Oct 19, 2023
Primary
Most important or first in order.
The primary goal is to improve customer satisfaction.
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Dec 07, 2023
Repeatedly Asked Queries
Can "principal" mean the most important thing?
Yes, it denotes the most important or chief element.
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Dec 07, 2023
Is "primary" always about being first?
It often means first in order or importance.
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Dec 07, 2023
Can "primary" mean basic?
Yes, it can refer to something fundamental or basic.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Can "principal" refer to money?
Yes, it can mean the original amount of money invested or loaned.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
What does "primary" mean in education?
Refers to the early years of schooling.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Is "primary" used in finance?
Yes, it can refer to the basic form of a financial instrument.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Does "principal" have a role in legal terms?
Yes, it can refer to the main party in a legal contract.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Does "principal" have an architectural meaning?
Yes, it can refer to the main part of a structure.
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Dec 07, 2023
What's a principal component in statistics?
It's a technique used to emphasize variation in a dataset.
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Dec 07, 2023
Can "principal" relate to theater?
Yes, it can refer to the leading actor or actress in a play.
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Dec 07, 2023
Is "primary" relevant in art?
Yes, as in primary colors, the basic colors from which others are made.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Is "principal" used in music?
Yes, it can refer to the chief musician in a section of an orchestra.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Does "primary" have a political meaning?
Yes, as in primary elections, initial elections to nominate candidates.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Is "principal" used in dance?
Yes, referring to the main or lead dancer in a performance.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Is "primary" used in healthcare?
Yes, as in primary care, the first level of basic healthcare.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
Does "primary" have a geological use?
Yes, as in primary rock, rock formed first in geological time.
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Dec 07, 2023
Can "principal" be used in engineering?
Yes, it can refer to the main or leading engineer in a project.
Shumaila Saeed
Dec 07, 2023
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About Author
Written by
Shumaila SaeedShumaila Saeed, an expert content creator with 6 years of experience, specializes in distilling complex topics into easily digestible comparisons, shining a light on the nuances that both inform and educate readers with clarity and accuracy.
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Hifza Nasir
