principally

[ prin-suh-puh-lee, -sip-lee ]

adverb

1. chiefly; mainly.

   Synonyms: primarily

ˈprincipally

/ ˈprɪnsɪpəlɪ /

adverb

1. mainly or most importantly

Word History and Origins

Origin of principally¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; principal, -ly

Synonym Study

See especially.

Example Sentences

“They’re all designed principally to avert your becoming seriously ill, and that’s the major point,” he says.

From Washington Post

Staying alive means, principally, rent, and median rent in the United States is up some 42%, adjusted for inflation, since 2000.

From MIT Technology Review

Known principally as a photographer, Hasbun represents momentous journeys with pictures and a video of paper boats, as well as an installation of dozens of such crafts.

From Washington Post

The “big is bad” approach burst onto the legal academic scene a couple of years ago, principally through a Yale Law Journal article by Lina Khan, a London-born academic who got her law degree in 2017 after graduating from Williams College in 2010.

From Fortune

Governments principally use social media platforms to reach out to their domestic audience.

From Ozy

There was a logic to it – many of the wines were from the Pacific Northwest, principally from Oregon and Washington state.

From The Daily Beast

A Different World [a Cosby Show spinoff] was principally about that college.

From The Daily Beast

The shared view in the region is that Iraq is principally an obsession of the U.S.

From The Daily Beast

He continued to live in Greenwich Village in an apartment furnished principally with books and empty orange crates.

From The Daily Beast

Obamacare  is principally designed for the 48 million uninsured Americans.

From The Daily Beast

Shortly afterwards a few acceptances were reported, principally against securities.

From Project Gutenberg

It was principally confined to the lower classes, and was common among soldiers and sailors.

From Project Gutenberg

This enactment was due principally to the railway accidents that occurred.

From Project Gutenberg

This island, like Number 1, which we visited in 1819, appears to be principally of quartzose formation.

From Project Gutenberg

It is in this way that lime, which occurs in the soil principally as the insoluble carbonate, is dissolved and absorbed.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• basically
• chiefly
• first and foremost
• generally
• importantly
• largely
• mostly
• notably
• particularly
• predominantly