The difference between Chief and Principal

When used as nouns, chief means a leader or head of a group of people, organisation, etc, whereas principal means the money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated.

When used as adjectives, chief means primary, whereas principal means primary.

Chief is also verb with the meaning: to smoke cannabis.

check bellow for the other definitions of Chief and Principal

  1. Chief as a noun:

    A leader or head of a group of people, organisation, etc.

    Examples:

    "All firefighters report to the fire chief."

  2. Chief as a noun (heraldiccharge):

    The top part of a shield or escutcheon; more specifically, an ordinary consisting of the upper part of the field cut off by a horizontal line, generally occupying the top third.

  3. Chief as a noun:

    The principal part or top of anything.

  4. Chief as a noun:

    Examples:

    "Hey, chief."

  1. Chief as an adjective:

    Primary; principal.

    Examples:

    "Negligence was the chief cause of the disaster."

  1. Chief as a verb (US, slang):

    To smoke cannabis.

  1. Principal as an adjective:

    Primary; most important.

    Examples:

    "Smith is the principal architect of this design."

    "The principal cause of the failure was poor planning."

  2. Principal as an adjective (obsolete, Latinism):

    Of or relating to a prince; princely.

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Edmund Spenser"

  1. Principal as a noun (finance, uncountable):

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

    Examples:

    "A portion of your mortgage payment goes to reduce the principal, and the rest covers interest."

  2. Principal as a noun (North America, Australia, New Zealand):

    The chief administrator of a school.

  3. Principal as a noun (UK, Canada):

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

  4. Principal as a noun (legal):

    A legal person that authorizes another (the agent) to act on one′s behalf; or on whose behalf an agent or gestor in a negotiorum gestio acts.

    Examples:

    "When an attorney represents a client, the client is the principal who permits the attorney, the client′s agent, to act on the client′s behalf."

    "My principal sells metal shims."

  5. Principal as a noun (legal):

    The primary participant in a crime.

  6. Principal as a noun (North America):

    A partner or owner of a business.

  7. Principal as a noun (music):

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

  8. Principal as a noun (architecture, engineering):

    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.

  9. Principal as a noun:

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

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Spenser"

    "rfquotek J. H. Walsh"

  10. Principal as a noun:

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

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Oxf. Gloss."

  11. Principal as a noun (obsolete):

    An essential point or rule; a principle.

  12. Principal as a noun:

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

  13. Principal as a noun (computing):

    A security principal.

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