English > principle: 6 senses > noun 4, cognition| Meaning | A rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system. |
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| Examples | - "the principle of the conservation of mass"
- "the principle of jet propulsion"
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| Synonym | rule |
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| Narrower | Gestalt law of organization, Gestalt principle of organization | A principle of Gestalt psychology that identifies factors leading to particular forms of perceptual organization |
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| Gresham's Law | (economics) the principle that when two kinds of money having the same denominational value are in circulation the intrinsically more valuable money will be hoarded and the money of lower intrinsic value will circulate more freely until the intrinsically more valuable money is driven out of circulation |
| Le Chatelier's principle, Le Chatelier's law, Le Chatelier principle, Le Chatelier-Braun principle | The principle that if any change is imposed on a system that is in equilibrium then the system tends to adjust to a new equilibrium counteracting the change |
| Naegele's rule | Rule for calculating an expected delivery date |
| Occam's Razor, Ockham's Razor, principle of parsimony, law of parsimony | The principle that entities should not be multiplied needlessly |
| localization of function, localisation of function, localization principle, localisation principle, localization, localisation | (physiology) the principle that specific functions have relatively circumscribed locations in some particular part or organ of the body |
| mass-action principle, mass action | (neurology) the principle that the cortex of the brain operates as a coordinated system with large masses of neural tissue involved in all complex functioning |
| mass-energy equivalence | (physics) the principle that a measured quantity of mass is equivalent (according to relativity theory) to a measured quantity of energy |
| principle of equivalence | (physics) the principle that an observer has no way of distinguishing whether his laboratory is in a uniform gravitational field or is in an accelerated frame of reference |
| principle of liquid displacement | (hydrostatics) the volume of a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the volume of the displaced fluid |
| principle of superposition, Huygens' principle of superposition | The displacement of any point due to the superposition of wave systems is equal to the sum of the displacements of the individual waves at that point |
| principle of superposition, superposition principle, superposition | (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest |
| Broader | law, law of nature | A generalization that describes recurring facts or events in nature |
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| Spanish | principio, regla |
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| Catalan | principi, regla |
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