Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In the principal or chief place; above all; chiefly: as, he was principally concerned about this.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a principal manner; primarily; above all; chiefly; mainly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a primary manner; pertaining to the principal of a matter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb for the most part

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

principal +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • Southland is a colloquial term principally used to refer to Southern California.

    High School Confidential Jeremy Iversen 2006

  • With spare language taken principally from the translations by Robert Fitzgerald and Robert Fagles, and with intricate pencil and watercolor illustrations, Mr. Hinds re-creates Odysseus 'turbulent voyage across "the wine-dark sea" from the ruins of Troy to the island of Ithaca and his long-suffering wife, Penelope.

    Highbrow Meghan Cox Gurdon 2010

  • This skin is created principally from a glass exterior skin, steel structure, wood decking and grassed, faceted roofscape.

    Docks de Paris by Jakob+MacFarlane 2009

  • Essentially, the more than $1 trillion that we have spent on these two wars thus far is money that we have borrowed principally from the Chinese, the Japanese and countries out in the Persian Gulf.

    Op-Ed: Burdens Of War Unevenly Shared In U.S. 2010

  • One has to realize that we live in principally secular societies: God is dead.

    Ballardian » ‘Violence without end’: An Interview with J.G. Ballard 2008

  • Like, in fact, Pomerol or Saint-Emilion — legendary French Bordeaux made principally from the recently reviled Merlot.

    Merlot for Snobs 2005

  • Like, in fact, Pomerol or Saint-Emilion — legendary French Bordeaux made principally from the recently reviled Merlot.

    Merlot for Snobs 2005

  • Like, in fact, Pomerol or Saint-Emilion — legendary French Bordeaux made principally from the recently reviled Merlot.

    Merlot for Snobs 2005

  • And for its value and utility it must be plainly avowed that that wisdom which we have derived principally from the Greeks is but like the boyhood of knowledge, and has the characteristic property of boys: it can talk, but it cannot generate, for it is fruitful of controversies but barren of works.

    The Great Instauration 2005

  • And for its value and utility it must be plainly avowed that that wisdom which we have derived principally from the Greeks is but like the boyhood of knowledge, and has the characteristic property of boys: it can talk, but it cannot generate, for it is fruitful of controversies but barren of works.

    The Great Instauration 2005

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