(idiomatic, law) A legally enforceable, but incompletely specified, agreement between parties that identifies the fundamental terms that are intended to be or are agreed upon.

(astronomy) The assumption that the universe, on a large enough scale, is homogeneous and isotropic.

With regard to the fundamentals, but not to the particulars. / According to theory.

plural of dormitive principle

(idiomatic, rhetoric, logic, linguistics) A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.

(physics) The observation that, out of the great range of all possible conditions on Earth, the actual conditions are all “just right” in order to support life.

(obsolete) To begin; to initiate.

(mathematics) The theorem which states that any partition of a finite set of n elements into m (< n) subsets (allowing empty subsets) must include a subset with two or more elements; any of certain reformulations concerning the partition of infinite sets where the cardinality of the unpartitioned set exceeds that of the partition (so there is no one-to-one correspondence).

(mathematics, physics) The principle that a linear combination of two or more solutions of an equation is itself a solution; it is a feature of many physical laws

A basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.