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Principal may refer to:

Education

The head of an educational institution:

• Principal (school), head of a primary or secondary school
• Principal (university), chief executive of a university
  • Dean (education), a person with significant authority
  • Provost (education), chief academic officer of a university
  • Chancellor (education), the head of a university

• Dean (religion), head of a collegiate college or similar position. Principal is often used

Law

• Principal (commercial law), a person who authorises an agent to act to create a legal relationship with a third party
• Principal (criminal law), one (or more) primary actor(s) in a criminal offense for which other actors may be criminally liable as accomplices, accessories or conspirators

Other uses

• Principal sum, the original amount of a debt or investment on which interest is calculated
• Organ stop on a pipe organ
• A musician in an orchestra who either plays the first part (wind instruments), or who sits in the first chair and leads a section (of string instruments) in playing the same part
• A performer in an opera or musical who takes a more or less prominent part in the action, and sings solo or in small ensembles
• A principal in an architectural firm.
• Principal value, values along a chosen branch of a multivalued function
  • The principal values of the different inverse trigonometric functions are a common example.
• Principal branch, a special selected branch of a multivalued function
• Principal ideal, in ring theory in mathematics, an ideal with a single generator, and the related concept of principal ideal domains
• The Cauchy Principal Value of an integral, in mathematics, a way of assigning a finite value to improper integrals that seem to diverge
• Principal (Civil Service) or Principal Officer, a senior management grade (now grade 7) in the British Civil Service and the Irish Civil Service
• A security principal is an entity that can be positively identified and verified via a technique known as Authentication
• Principal, Cape Verde, a village
• Principal Financial Group, a life insurance company traded on the NYSE

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