dominant vs principal

dominant

adj
  • Predominant, common, prevalent, of greatest importance. 

  • Ruling; governing; prevailing 

  • Being the dominant 

  • Preferred and used with greater dexterity than the other, as the right hand of a right-handed person or the left hand of a left-handed one. 

  • Designating the follicle which will survive atresia and permit ovulation. 

noun
  • The fifth major tone of a musical scale (five major steps above the note in question); thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on. 

  • The triad built on the dominant tone. 

  • A gene that is dominant. 

  • The dominating partner in sadomasochistic sexual activity. 

  • A species or organism that is dominant. 

principal

adj
  • Primary; most important; first level in importance. 

  • Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued. 

noun
  • The chief administrator of a school. 

  • A diapason, a type of organ stop on a pipe organ. 

  • 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. 

  • A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. 

  • The primary participant in a crime. 

  • The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing. 

  • A security principal. 

  • 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. 

  • The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college. 

  • The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated. 

  • A partner or owner of a business. 

  • One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned 

How often have the words dominant and principal occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )