in principle

1. 1.

   with regard to fundamentals although not concerning details

   “in principle, we agree”

   Synonymsin theoryin essence

Questions about in principle

What does in principle mean?

in principle means "with regard to fundamentals although not concerning details".

What is another word for in principle?

Close synonyms include in theory, in essence. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is in principle a common word?

in principle is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.