working principle
- noun
- Specialized
:
principio de funcionamiento
- The engineer explained the working principle of the new device, making it easy to understand how it operates.
Examples
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The mind and the world are not radically distinct realms, each employing separate principles, but consciousness and the world share the same working principle.
Academic text (1995) -
The proposed fusion algorithm, along with the working principle of various wavelet transforms and the design of the rotated complex wavelet transform and its implementation, is detailed in Section 4.
Academic text (2016) -
But I would more simply say that if you're going to have a working principle to guide you, then it had better work.
Academic text (2010) -
However, the actual working principle is counterintuitive.
Blog text (32) -
But Levinson was the first to insist on it as a working principle of criticism.
Academic text (1991) -
As a working principle based on common experience, the probable best guide is that a cost reduction ought to be equally applied for all institutional units for lower crisis level situations.
Academic text (1995) -
It does an excellent job of illustrating the underlying working principles of scientific computing and disciplined software development.
Academic text (2009) -
Those attempts necessitate scientific rigor to refute or validate working principles, but they also demand an intuitive strategy that can be gained only through experience.
Academic text (2000) -
Jenkins, R. F. 1980. A description of working principles and procedures employed by selected people's theater groups in the United States. An unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University.
Academic text (1995) -
Understanding the working principle behind solar panels helps us appreciate their role in renewable energy.
Synonyms
633
3.8
A basic idea or law that explains how something works
22
2.7
An important rule or idea that forms the base for other knowledge
14
4.1
A basic rule that other ideas come from
How Fundamental
- Specialized
206
5.0
- Specialized
344
3.1
- Informal
31
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'working principle' is a straightforward composition of 'working' (functioning) + 'principle' (foundational rule), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer it means the rule or mechanism that makes something operate. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows transparent noun-modifier logic, making the meaning immediately accessible.
Etymology
Working principle comes from the idea of a single rule or part that makes a machine run. Think of working as 'doing the job' and principle as the 'rule' that makes it happen. So working principle means the basic rule or idea that explains 'how something works'.