Reason
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈɹiËzÉ™n/
- Rhymes: -iËzÉ™n
- Hyphenation: rea + son
Origin
From Anglo-Norman raisun (Old French raison), from Latin rationem, an accusative of ratio, from ratus, past participle of reor ("think").
Full definition of reason
Noun
reason
(plural reasons)- A cause:
- That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.The reason this tree fell is that it had rotted.
- 1996, Daniel Clement Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, page 198:There is a reason why so many should be symmetrical: The selective advantage in a symmetrical complex is enjoyed by all the subunits...
- A motive for an action or a determination.The reason I robbed the bank was that I needed the money.If you don't give me a reason to go with you, I won't.
- 1806, Anonymous, Select Notes to Book XXI, in, Alexander Pope, translator, The of , volume 6 (London, F.J. du Roveray), page 37:This is the reason why he proposes to offer a libation, to atone for the abuse of the day by their diversions.
- 1881, Henry James, , chapter 10:Ralph Touchett, for reasons best known to himself, had seen fit to say that Gilbert Osmond was not a good fellow...
- An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
- 1966, Graham Greene, ( edition, ISBN 0140184945), page 14:I have forgotten the reason he gave for not travelling by air. I felt sure that it was not the correct reason, and that he suffered from a heart trouble which he kept to himself.
- (uncountable) Rational thinking (or the capacity for it; the cognitive faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.Mankind should develop reason above all other virtues.
- 1970, Hannah Arendt, On Violence (ISBN 0156695006), page 62:And the specific distinction between man and beast is now, strictly speaking, no longer reason (the lumen naturale of the human animal) but science...
- (obsolete) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
- unknown date Edmund Spenser:I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme.
- (mathematics, obsolete) ratio; proportion.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Verb
- (intransitive) To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
- (intransitive) Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue.
- (intransitive) To converse; to compare opinions.
- (transitive) To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.I reasoned the matter with my friend.
- (transitive, rare) To support with reasons, as a request.
- (transitive) To persuade by reasoning or argument.to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan
- (transitive, with down) To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.to reason down a passion
- (transitive, usually with out) To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon'''