Belief vs. Principle

Beliefnoun

Mental acceptance of a claim as true.

‘It's my belief that the thief is somebody known to us.’;

Principlenoun

A fundamental assumption or guiding belief.

‘We need some sort of principles to reason from.’;

Beliefnoun

Faith or trust in the reality of something; often based upon one's own reasoning, trust in a claim, desire of actuality, and/or evidence considered.

‘My belief is that there is a bear in the woods. Bill said he saw one.’; ‘Based on this data, it is our belief that X does not occur.’;

Principlenoun

A rule used to choose among solutions to a problem.

‘The principle of least privilege holds that a process should only receive the permissions it needs.’;

Beliefnoun

(countable) Something believed.

‘The ancient people have a belief in many deities.’;

Principlenoun

Moral rule or aspect.

‘I don't doubt your principles.’; ‘You are clearly a person of principle.’; ‘It's the principle of the thing; I won't do business with someone I can't trust.’;

Beliefnoun

(uncountable) The quality or state of believing.

‘My belief that it will rain tomorrow is strong.’;

Principlenoun

(physics) A rule or law of nature, or the basic idea on how the laws of nature are applied.

‘Bernoulli's Principle’; ‘The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents two fermions from occupying the same state.’; ‘The principle of the internal combustion engine’;

Beliefnoun

(uncountable) Religious faith.

‘She often said it was her belief that carried her through the hard times.’;

Principlenoun

A fundamental essence, particularly one producing a given quality.

‘Many believe that life is the result of some vital principle.’;

Beliefnoun

(in the plural) One's religious or moral convictions.

‘I don't want to do a no-fault divorce on my husband and steal from him under color of law. It's against my beliefs.’;

Principlenoun

(obsolete) A beginning.

Beliefnoun

Assent to a proposition or affirmation, or the acceptance of a fact, opinion, or assertion as real or true, without immediate personal knowledge; reliance upon word or testimony; partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty; persuasion; conviction; confidence; as, belief of a witness; the belief of our senses.

‘Belief admits of all degrees, from the slightest suspicion to the fullest assurance.’;

Principlenoun

A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.

Beliefnoun

A persuasion of the truths of religion; faith.

‘No man can attain [to] belief by the bare contemplation of heaven and earth.’;

Principlenoun

An original faculty or endowment.

Beliefnoun

The thing believed; the object of belief.

‘Superstitious prophecies are not only the belief of fools, but the talk sometimes of wise men.’;

Principleverb

(transitive) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet or rule of conduct.

Beliefnoun

A tenet, or the body of tenets, held by the advocates of any class of views; doctrine; creed.

‘In the heat of persecution to which Christian belief was subject upon its first promulgation.’;

Principlenoun

Beginning; commencement.

‘Doubting sad end of principle unsound.’;

Beliefnoun

any cognitive content held as true

Principlenoun

A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds; fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate element, or cause.

‘The soul of man is an active principle.’;

Beliefnoun

a vague idea in which some confidence is placed;

‘his impression of her was favorable’; ‘what are your feelings about the crisis?’; ‘it strengthened my belief in his sincerity’; ‘I had a feeling that she was lying’;

Principlenoun

An original faculty or endowment.

‘Nature in your principles hath set [benignity].’; ‘Those active principles whose direct and ultimate object is the communication either of enjoyment or suffering.’;

Belief

A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition about the world is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false.

‘belief’;

Principlenoun

A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine, from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a postulate.

‘Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.’; ‘A good principle, not rightly understood, may prove as hurtful as a bad.’;

Principlenoun

A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle.

‘All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of mind.’;

Principlenoun

Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually be separated by analysis; - applied especially to drugs, plant extracts, etc.

‘Cathartine is the bitter, purgative principle of senna.’;

Principleverb

To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in certain principles; to impress with any tenet, or rule of conduct, good or ill.

‘Governors should be well principled.’; ‘Let an enthusiast be principled that he or his teacher is inspired.’;

Principlenoun

a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct;

‘their principles of composition characterized all their works’;

Principlenoun

a rule or standard especially of good behavior;

‘a man of principle’; ‘he will not violate his principles’;

Principlenoun

a basic truth or law or assumption;

‘the principles of democracy’;

Principlenoun

a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system;

‘the principle of the conservation of mass’; ‘the principle of jet propulsion’; ‘the right-hand rule for inductive fields’;

Principlenoun

rule of personal conduct

Principlenoun

(law) an explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature);

‘the rationale for capital punishment’; ‘the principles of internal-combustion engines’;

Principlenoun

a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning

‘the basic principles of justice’;

Principlenoun

a rule or belief governing one's behaviour

‘she resigned over a matter of principle’; ‘struggling to be true to their own principles’;

Principlenoun

morally correct behaviour and attitudes

‘a man of principle’;

Principlenoun

a general scientific theorem or law that has numerous special applications across a wide field.

Principlenoun

a natural law forming the basis for the construction or working of a machine

‘these machines all operate on the same general principle’;

Principlenoun

a fundamental source or basis of something

‘the first principle of all things was water’;

Principlenoun

a fundamental quality determining the nature of something

‘the combination of male and female principles’;

Principlenoun

an active or characteristic constituent of a substance, obtained by simple analysis or separation

‘the active principle of Spanish fly’;

Principle

A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a rule that has to be or usually is to be followed.