MEANING
A rule intended to guide action or conduct, especially one based on moral principles.
Use it for
identifying a tradition’s rules for conduct; distinguishing a normative instruction from a factual prediction; examining the principle a writer expects others to followNames a rule for conduct rather than a descriptive claim about how people actually behave. Academic functions: Argumentation, Theory / Conceptual Language.
Words that belong together
- a moral precept
- an ethical precept
- the precepts of a tradition
On the page
The argument defends the ethical precept without claiming that everyone consistently follows it.
The historian distinguishes a tradition’s stated precepts from the practices of its adherents.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- precept
Usage notes
Countable: precept, precepts. Often precept of + doctrine or tradition. Register: formal. Commonness: uncommon (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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