imperial vs principal

imperial

noun
  • A kind of dome, as in Moorish buildings. 

  • Any of several combinations of cards which score in this game. 

  • A crown imperial. 

  • A bottle of wine (usually Bordeaux) containing 6 liters of fluid, eight times the volume of a standard bottle. 

  • An outside seat on a diligence or carriage. 

  • A writing paper size measuring 30 × 22 inches, or printing paper measuring 32 × 22 inches. 

  • A variety of green tea. 

  • A card game differing from piquet in some minor details, and in having a trump. 

  • A tuft of hair on the lower lip (so called from its use by Napoleon III). 

adj
  • Related to an empire, emperor, or empress. 

  • Very grand or fine. 

  • Relating to the British imperial system of measurement. 

  • Of special, superior, or unusual size or excellence. 

principal

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

  • 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. 

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

  • Primary; most important; first level in importance. 

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