Precept
noun
A commandment or direction meant as a rule of action or conduct.
The teacher gave the students a precept to always treat each other with kindness.
Usage tips
Formal
Academic
noun
A legal writ or warrant.
The court issued a precept commanding the sheriff to arrest the suspect.
Often appears as...
- issue a precept
- serve a precept
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
noun
An order issued by a local authority to levy a rate.
The county council issued a precept for the collection of taxes.
Often appears as...
- issue a precept
- precept for tax collection
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
noun
A commandment or direction meant as a rule of action or conduct.
The teacher gave the students a precept to always treat each other with kindness.
Usage tips
Formal
Academic
noun
A legal writ or warrant.
The court issued a precept commanding the sheriff to arrest the suspect.
Often appears as...
- issue a precept
- serve a precept
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
noun
An order issued by a local authority to levy a rate.
The county council issued a precept for the collection of taxes.
Often appears as...
- issue a precept
- precept for tax collection
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Ethical Foundation
A precept often reflects a core value or ethical stance fundamental to a belief system or society.
The school's precepts include respect and honesty as foundations for character.
Pro Tip 2/3Moral Instruction
Precepts are used to guide moral behavior rather than technical or procedural actions.
One of our community precepts is to help neighbors in need.
Pro Tip 3/3Greater Authority
Precepts are often established by an authority, such as a religious leader, to instruct followers.
The priest shared precepts that guided the congregation's worship.
Pro Tip 1/3Ethical Foundation
A precept often reflects a core value or ethical stance fundamental to a belief system or society.
The school's precepts include respect and honesty as foundations for character.
Pro Tip 2/3Moral Instruction
Precepts are used to guide moral behavior rather than technical or procedural actions.
One of our community precepts is to help neighbors in need.
Pro Tip 3/3Greater Authority
Precepts are often established by an authority, such as a religious leader, to instruct followers.
The priest shared precepts that guided the congregation's worship.
Pro Tip 1/3Ethical Foundation
A precept often reflects a core value or ethical stance fundamental to a belief system or society.
The school's precepts include respect and honesty as foundations for character.
Pro Tip 2/3Moral Instruction
Precepts are used to guide moral behavior rather than technical or procedural actions.
One of our community precepts is to help neighbors in need.
Pro Tip 3/3Greater Authority
Precepts are often established by an authority, such as a religious leader, to instruct followers.
The priest shared precepts that guided the congregation's worship.
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Video examples
Science can answer moral...
require moral precepts that that admit of no exceptions so for instance if it's really wrong to lie it must always be wrong to lie and if you can find an exception well then there's no such thing as moral truth now why would we think this consider by analogy
Video examples
Science can answer moral...
does not tempt us to say that there are no truths to be known about human nutrition. Many people worry that a universal morality would require moral precepts that admit of no exceptions.
Video examples
Science can answer moral...
require moral precepts that that admit of no exceptions so for instance if it's really wrong to lie it must always be wrong to lie and if you can find an exception well then there's no such thing as moral truth now why would we think this consider by analogy
Video examples
Science can answer moral...
does not tempt us to say that there are no truths to be known about human nutrition. Many people worry that a universal morality would require moral precepts that admit of no exceptions.
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Barack Obama
American President
My family, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn't raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.
Quote examples
Sam Harris
American Author
Religious ideas about good and evil tend to focus on how to achieve well-being in the next life, and this makes them terrible guides to securing it in this one. Of course, there are a few gems to be found in every religious tradition, but insofar as these precepts are wise and useful they are not, in principle, religious.
Quote examples
Susan Collins
American Politician
My conclusion about Mr. Trump's unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.
Quote examples
Mary Wollstonecraft
British Writer
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.
Quote examples
Samuel Smiles
Scottish Author
Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.
Quote examples
Myles Munroe
Bahamian Clergyman
It is my belief that no matter how advanced man may become in science, technology, systems, and knowledge, he can never improve on the foundational precepts of marriage as the bedrock of social development.
Quote examples
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Roman Statesman
Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.
Quote examples
Lewis B. Smedes
American Author
Our society is pluralistic. We who accept the privilege of membership in that society agree to respect the people's right to live by their own religious precepts.
Quote examples
James Russell Lowell
American Poet
Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances.
Quote examples
Howard Gardner
American Psychologist
Contradictory precepts that have guided me for as long as I can remember: 1: I will live forever. 2: I will die tomorrow.
Quote examples
Barack Obama
American President
My family, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn't raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.
Quote examples
Sam Harris
American Author
Religious ideas about good and evil tend to focus on how to achieve well-being in the next life, and this makes them terrible guides to securing it in this one. Of course, there are a few gems to be found in every religious tradition, but insofar as these precepts are wise and useful they are not, in principle, religious.
Quote examples
Susan Collins
American Politician
My conclusion about Mr. Trump's unsuitability for office is based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect, an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.
Quote examples
Mary Wollstonecraft
British Writer
Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.
Quote examples
Samuel Smiles
Scottish Author
Practical wisdom is only to be learned in the school of experience. Precepts and instruction are useful so far as they go, but, without the discipline of real life, they remain of the nature of theory only.
Quote examples
Myles Munroe
Bahamian Clergyman
It is my belief that no matter how advanced man may become in science, technology, systems, and knowledge, he can never improve on the foundational precepts of marriage as the bedrock of social development.
Quote examples
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Roman Statesman
Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.
Quote examples
Lewis B. Smedes
American Author
Our society is pluralistic. We who accept the privilege of membership in that society agree to respect the people's right to live by their own religious precepts.
Quote examples
James Russell Lowell
American Poet
Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances.
Quote examples
Howard Gardner
American Psychologist
Contradictory precepts that have guided me for as long as I can remember: 1: I will live forever. 2: I will die tomorrow.
Example 1 of 10
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