principal vs special

principal

noun
  • A security principal. 

  • 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 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 

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. 

special

noun
  • A special constable. 

  • Anything that is not according to normal practice, plan, or schedule, as an unscheduled run of transportation that is normally scheduled. 

  • A person appointed specifically to examine a single event or issue. 

  • Any unlicensed medicine produced or obtained for a specific individual patient. 

  • A dispatch sent back by a special correspondent. 

  • One of a rotation of meals systematically offered for a lower price at a restaurant. 

  • A light that illuminates a specific person or thing on the stage. 

  • A reduction in consumer cost (usually for a limited time) for items or services rendered. 

  • A correspondent; a journalist sent to the scene of an event to report back. 

  • Unusual or exceptional episode of a series. 

adj
  • Chief in excellence. 

  • Of particular personal interest or value; dear; beloved. 

  • Of or related to disabilities, especially learning or intellectual disabilities. 

  • Distinguished by a unique or unusual quality. 

  • Constituting or relating to a species. 

  • Of or related to unconventional warfare. 

verb
  • To supervise a patient one-on-one. 

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