principal vs superior

principal

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

  • 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 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. 

superior

noun
  • The head of certain religious institutions and colleges. 

  • The senior person in a monastic community. 

  • One who has made an original grant of heritable property to a tenant or vassal, on condition of a certain annual payment (feu duty) or of the performance of certain services. 

  • A superior letter, figure, or symbol. 

adj
  • Greater in size or power. 

  • Courageously or serenely indifferent (as to something painful or disheartening). 

  • Higher in rank, status, or quality. 

  • (of a calyx) Above the ovary; said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part. 

  • Located above or higher, a direction that in humans corresponds to cephalad. 

  • Of high standard or quality. 

  • Located above or out; higher in position. 

  • Affecting or assuming an air of superiority. 

  • (of an ovary) Above and free from the other floral organs. 

  • Printed in superscript. 

  • (of the radicle) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit. 

  • Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem. 

  • More comprehensive. 

  • (of a planet) Closer to the Earth than to the Sun. 

  • Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by. 

  • Greater or better than average. 

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