| KEYNOTE | The central principle in a speech or literary work |
| ESSENCE | Central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work (7) |
| KEYSTONE | Two things a piano needs - it's the central principle |
| TAO | Central principle in Chinese philosophy (3) |
| APOSTATISE | Abandon principles in a job and start to swindle, breaking a commitment (10) |
| CREDO | Arrangement of 27 principles in a statement? (5) |
| SCENARIO | An outline or synopsis of the plot of a dramatic or literary work such as a film, novel or play; or, a postulated sequence of possible developments or events (8) |
| CONTENT | The subject matter of an article, discussion or literary work; or, usually in plural, a list of chapters given at the front of a book (7) |
| LAMPOON | A satire in prose or verse ridiculing a person or literary work (7) |
| DELIVERY | Manner or style of giving a speech or bowling a cricket ball; or, the process of childbirth or parturition (8) |
| COMPOSE | Produce or create a musical or literary work (7) |
| PADDING | Cloth, foam, wad or other stuffing for brassieres or upholstery; or, by extension, space-filling superfluous verbiage in a speech/written work (7) |
| DENOUEMENT | Final part of a dramatic or literary work in which conflicts and plotlines are resolved; from French, 'unknot' (10) |
| COMPOSING | Creating a musical or literary work (9) |
| ADDRESS | Archaic word for an amorous advance or act of wooing; a speech or written communication; one's manner of speaking; or, the place one lives (7) |
| INDITE | Compose or write as a speech or a poem (6) |
| VICTORY | Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar; or, a word quoted several times by Winston Churchill in a speech (7) |
| ECHO | Make a sound comeback in a speech original in content (4) |
| YIN | In Chinese philosophy, the passive, negative, feminine force or principle in the universe |
| YANG | In Chinese philosophy, the active positive masculine force or principle in the universe |
