first principles
7
5.8
- noun
- Formal
:
principios fundamentales
- The lecturer explained the first principles that underpin classical physics.
- begin with first principles
- based on first principles
And so we can bring in additional first principles to account for this.
- And so we can bring in additional first principles to account for this.
- First of all, from first principles, what is a government bond?
- You got to, you got to reinvent from first principles what it means to be a man.
- I think it's a very first principles approach to people who live on a rock.
- You have to think, you know, the old first principles thinking like, why are we doing it this way?
- That's something that requires a level of intuition, experience and thinking from first principles.
- It's called the initial mass function and it is actually not known by first principle.
- What's hard is deciding, hey, this isn't working and we need to go back to first principles.
- He also tells us that in engaging in this, this choice, what we're doing is choosing the first principles of our conception of justice.
- Then I've spent a couple paragraphs making the case that you can find all of Jefferson's four first principles in Lambie's petition.
- I love the whole idea of first principles and mental maps.
Examples
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Commit yourself to uphold the first principles and values.
Academic text (2008) -
Self-determination of all peoples is one of the very first principles in the UN Charter.
Blog text (17) -
And so we can bring in additional first principles to account for this.
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You have broken the first principle of our training.
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If you hold such views, you need to be taught the first principles of the truth.
Blog text (10) -
But it is also a time for reflection about our first principles.
Academic text (1995) -
Indeed, the study of economics provides the first principles here.
Academic text (1997) -
Surely, a first principle of scholarly work is to obtain all the available facts.
Academic text (1991) -
The pretest measured what students retained from their first principles course, wherever it was taken.
Academic text (1997) -
So, these first principles direct us indiscriminately toward the well-being and flourishing of ourselves and everyone else.
Academic text (2008)
Synonyms
182
3.5
The basic ideas and facts that support a belief, plan, or system
22
2.7
An important rule or idea that forms the base for other knowledge
18
4.2
The basic principles that support a system, idea, or group
14
4.1
A basic rule that other ideas come from
8
1.0
Important facts or skills you learn first in a subject
5
1.0
The simple first things you must learn about a subject
Basic ideas you learn first when studying a subject
Basic facts or skills you learn first in a subject
How Fundamental
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'basic, foundational concepts' is directly built from 'first' (primary, earliest or most important) and 'principle' (foundational rule), so a learner who knows both words can infer the combined sense. This compositional pattern is common across languages and follows standard adjective + noun semantics, making the expression readily understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
First principles paints a simple picture: you go back to the very first blocks or rules, the first 'principles', and start building from them. That's why it means 'basic ideas' that everything else is built from.