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View synonyms for precept

precept

[ pree-sept ]

noun

  1. a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct.

    Synonyms: prescription, instruction, guide, order, directive

  2. an injunction as to moral conduct; maxim.
  3. a procedural directive or rule, as for the performance of some technical operation.
  4. Law.
    1. a writ or warrant.
    2. a written order issued pursuant to law, as a sheriff's order for an election.


precept

/ ˈpriːsɛpt /

noun

  1. a rule or principle for action
  2. a guide or rule for morals; maxim
  3. a direction, esp for a technical operation
  4. law
    1. a writ or warrant
    2. a written order to a sheriff to arrange an election, the empanelling of a jury, etc
    3. (in England) an order to collect money under a rate
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of precept1

1300–50; Middle English < Latin praeceptum piece of advice, rule, noun use of neuter of praeceptus, past participle of praecipere to direct, foresee, literally, to take beforehand, equivalent to prae- pre- + -cep-, combining form of capere to take + -tus past participle suffix
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Word History and Origins

Origin of precept1

C14: from Latin praeceptum maxim, injunction, from praecipere to admonish, from prae before + capere to take
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Example Sentences

In the United States, this is a core constitutional precept.

From Time

Rachel Pierce coined the phrase “Capitol Hill feminism” to describe how “women on the Hill adopted and adapted the rhetoric, ideological precepts, and policy goals of the women’s movement.”

From Time

Yet Butler pulls it off, by painting vivid portraits of the people who breathed life into those precepts.

From Time

The Buddhist monastic community is divided into a fourfold system of novice monks, novice nuns, fully ordained monks and fully ordained nuns, each with a set of precepts, or vinaya, that they need to follow.

This study hopes to nail down the “hot zones” of consciousness—either the front or back of the brain—and how conscious thoughts or precepts are maintained over time.

Ironically, this is the one precept on which liberals and conservatives agree.

You want to advocate for including a precept of Jewish law in civil or criminal law?

Where would a justice be more likely than in Israel to run across an arguable precept.

Many think this a precept of natural law; why not of the Constitution?

Likewise our second precept remained beyond discussion; direct open contact with humanity.

And explicitly, in the same connection are the various observances included in it presented in precept.

The Ten Commandments are of perpetual obligation on all; and so is every moral precept included in them.

A leader of men rather than a tactician or strategist, he played on the enthusiasm of his soldiers by example rather than precept.

Both the positive precept and the statutes of the decalogue unfolded what was designed as a covenant claim.

If he sometimes come across a precept which is perfectly clear and irrefutable, Donald does not scruple to ignore it.

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precentorpreceptive