Meanings
- not comparableIn a primary manner; pertaining to the principal of a matter.
Pollination by animals, principally insects and birds, is widespread among plants.
2019 March 13, “Nature Talk looks at avian pollinators”, in New Zealand Herald, archived from the original on 14 Mar 20193 more examples
The game principally consists in taking and carrying off the ball from the opposite party, after being hurled into the air midway between two high pillars, which are the goasl, and the party who bears off the ball to their pillar, wins the game[…]
1828, Elizabeth Elkins Sanders, Conversations Principally on the Aborigines of North America, Salem: W. and S. B. Ives, page 65Timber, hides, furs, and minerals from the north, and grain and other products from the south and the immediate vicinity of the town itself are brought, principally by river, to this point, where the railway cuts the great central waterway of Siberia.
1916 May 28, M[aria] A[ntonina] Czaplicka, “A Year in Arctic Sibera”, in The Wide World Magazine, volume 37, number 217, page 54When asked to guess whether champagnes they were drinking was made principally from white or black grapes, most tasters including wine writers and journalists were unable to tell the difference.
2013 November 29, Nick Collins, “Even Champagne experts blind to grape varieties”, in The Telegraph
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbIn a primary manner; pertaining to the principal of a matter.
More synonyms by meaning
adverbfor the most part
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishprincipaly
- Englishprincipally
From Middle English principaly. By surface analysis, principal + -ly.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish principalmente
- principalmenteTranslations
Cite this entry
principally. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/principally
“principally.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/principally. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “principally,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/principally.
Source: principally on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.