| opinion ruling | the reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself) |
rationale
principle | (law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature), the rationale for capital punishment, the principles of internalombustion engines |
working principle
working rule | a rule that is adequate to permit work to be done |
fundamentals
basics
fundamental principle
basic principle
bedrock | principles from which other truths can be derived, first you must learn the fundamentals, let's get down to basics |
pleasure principle
pleasure-pain principle
pleasure-unpleasure principle | (psychoanalysis) the governing principle of the id, the principle that an infant seeks gratification and fails to distinguish fantasy from reality |
| reality principle | (psychoanalysis) the governing principle of the ego, the principle that as a child grows it becomes aware of the real environment and the need to accommodate to it |
| principle | a basic truth or law or assumption, the principles of democracy |
rudiment
first rudiment
first principle
alphabet
ABC
ABC's
ABCs | the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural), he mastered only the rudiments of geometry |
| principle rule | a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system, the principle of the conservation of mass, the principle of jet propulsion, the right-hand rule for inductive fields |
Archimedes' principle
law of Archimedes | (hydrostatics) the apparent loss in weight of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid |
Gestalt law of organization
Gestalt principle of organization | a principle of Gestalt psychology that identifies factors leading to particular forms of perceptual organization |
Le Chatelier's principle
Le Chatelier's law
Le Chatelier principle
Le Chatelier-Braun principle | the principle that if any change is imposed on a system that is in equilibrium then the system tends to adjust to a new equilibrium counteracting the change |
Pauli exclusion principle
exclusion principle | no two electrons or protons or neutrons in a given system can be in states characterized by the same set of quantum numbers |
| principle rule | a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct, their principles of composition characterized all their works |
| principle | a rule or standard especially of good behavior, a man of principle, he will not violate his principles |
accounting principle
accounting standard | a principle that governs current accounting practice and that is used as a reference to determine the appropriate treatment of complex transactions |
ethic
moral principle
value-system
value orientation | the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group, the Puritan ethic, a person with old-fashioned values |
legal principle
judicial principle
judicial doctrine | (law) a principle underlying the formulation of jurisprudence |
| principle of relativity | (physics) a universal law that states that the laws of mechanics are not affected by a uniform rectilinear motion of the system of coordinates to which they are referred |
Occam's Razor
Ockham's Razor
principle of parsimony
law of parsimony | the principle that entities should not be multiplied needlessly, the simplest of two competing theories is to be preferred |
| principle of equivalence | (physics) the principle that an observer has no way of distinguishing whether his laboratory is in a uniform gravitational field or is in an accelerated frame of reference |
| principle of liquid displacement | (hydrostatics) the volume of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the volume of the displaced fluid |
principle of superposition
Huygens' principle of superposition | the displacement of any point due to the superposition of wave systems is equal to the sum of the displacements of the individual waves at that point, the principle of superposition is the basis of the wave theory of light |
| principle of superposition superposition principle superposition | (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest |
mass-action principle
mass action | (neurology) the principle that the cortex of the brain operates as a coordinated system with large masses of neural tissue involved in all complex functioning |
localization of function
localisation of function
localization principle
localisation principle
localization
localisation | (physiology) the principle that specific functions have relatively circumscribed locations in some particular part or organ of the body |
uncertainty principle
indeterminacy principle | (quantum theory) the theory that it is impossible to measure both energy and time (or position and momentum) completely accurately at the same time |
principle
precept | rule of personal conduct |
| moral principle | the principle that conduct should be moral |
ruling class
people in power | the class of people exerting power or authority |
vital principle
life principle | a hypothetical force to which the functions and qualities peculiar to living things are sometimes ascribed |
| bitter principle | any one of several hundred compounds having a bitter taste, not admitting of chemical classification |
regnant
reigning
ruling | exercising power or authority |
in principle
in theory in essence | with regard to fundamentals although not concerning details, in principle, we agree |