multiple vs principal

multiple

noun
  • Price-earnings ratio. 

  • A whole number that can be divided by another number with no remainder. 

  • One of a set of the same thing; a duplicate. 

  • A single individual who has multiple personalities. 

  • One of a set of siblings produced by a multiple birth. 

  • A discovery resulting from the work of many people throughout history, not merely the work of the person who makes the final connection. 

  • A chain store. 

  • More than one piercing in a single ear. 

adj
  • More than one (followed by plural). 

  • Having more than one element, part, component, or function, having more than one instance, occurring more than once, usually contrary to expectations (can be followed by a singular). 

principal

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

  • 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. 

  • 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 

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 multiple and principal occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )