Reason definition | Dictionary.com

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Reason - 9 dictionary results

rea⋅son

[ree-zuh

Use Reason in a Sentence

–noun

1.	a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event, etc.: the reason for declaring war.

2.	a statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action.

3.	the mental powers concerned with forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences.

4.	sound judgment; good sense.

5.	normal or sound powers of mind; sanity.

6.	Logic. a premise of an argument.

Philosophy.

a.	the faculty or power of acquiring intellectual knowledge, either by direct understanding of first principles or by argument.

b.	the power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought.

c.	Kantianism. the faculty by which the ideas of pure reason are created.

–verb (used without object)

8.	to think or argue in a logical manner.

9.	to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.

10.	to urge reasons which should determine belief or action.

–verb (used with object)

11.	to think through logically, as a problem (often fol. by out).

12.	to conclude or infer.

13.	to convince, persuade, etc., by reasoning.

14.	to support with reasons.

—Idioms

15.	bring (someone) to reason, to induce a change of opinion in (someone) through presentation of arguments; convince: The mother tried to bring her rebellious daughter to reason.

16.	by reason of, on account of; because of: He was consulted about the problem by reason of his long experience.

17.	in or within reason, in accord with reason; justifiable; proper: She tried to keep her demands in reason.

18.	stand to reason, to be clear, obvious, or logical: With such an upbringing it stands to reason that the child will be spoiled.

19.	with reason, with justification; properly: The government is concerned about the latest crisis, and with reason.

Origin:
1175–1225; ME resoun, reisun (n.) < OF reisun, reson < L ratiōn- (s. of ratiō) ratio

Related forms:

rea⋅son⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
1. purpose, end, aim, object, objective. Reason, cause, motive are terms for a circumstance (or circumstances) which brings about or explains certain results. A reason is an explanation of a situation or circumstance which made certain results seem possible or appropriate: The reason for the robbery was the victim's display of his money. The cause is the way in which the circumstances produce the effect, that is, make a specific action seem necessary or desirable: The cause was the robber's extreme need of money. A motive is the hope, desire, or other force which starts the action (or an action) in an attempt to produce specific results: The motive was to get money to buy food for his family. 2. excuse, rationalization. 3. understanding, intellect, mind, intelligence. 10. persuade.

Usage note:
The construction reason is because is criticized in a number of usage guides: The reason for the long delays was because the costs greatly exceeded the original estimates. One objection to this construction is based on its redundancy: the word because (literally, by cause) contains within it the meaning of reason; thus saying the reason is because is like saying “The cause is by cause,” which would never be said. A second objection is based on the claim that because can introduce only adverbial clauses and that reason is requires completion by a noun clause. Critics would substitute that for because in the offending construction: The reason for the long delays in completing the project was that the costs. … Although the objections described here are frequently raised, reason is because is still common in almost all levels of speech and occurs often in edited writing as well.
A similar charge of redundancy is made against the reason why, which is also a well-established idiom: The reason why the bill failed to pass was the defection of three key senators.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Reason

rea·son (rē'zən)

The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction. See Usage Notes at because, why.
A declaration made to explain or justify action, decision, or conviction: inquired about her reason for leaving.
An underlying fact or cause that provides logical sense for a premise or occurrence: There is reason to believe that the accused did not commit this crime.
The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence.
Good judgment; sound sense.
A normal mental state; sanity: He has lost his reason.
Logic A premise, usually the minor premise, of an argument.

v. rea·soned, rea·son·ing, rea·sons

v. intr.

To use the faculty of reason; think logically.
To talk or argue logically and persuasively.
Obsolete To engage in conversation or discussion.

v. tr.

To determine or conclude by logical thinking: reasoned out a solution to the problem.
To persuade or dissuade (someone) with reasons.

[Middle English, from Old French raison, from Latin ratiō, ratiōn-, from ratus, past participle of rērī, to consider, think; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]
rea'son·er n.

Synonyms: These nouns refer to the intellectual faculty by which humans seek or attain knowledge or truth. Reason is the power to think rationally and logically and to draw inferences: "Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its [the Christian religion's] veracity" (David Hume).
Intuition is perception or comprehension, as of truths or facts, without the use of the rational process: I trust my intuitions when it comes to assessing someone's character.
Understanding is the faculty by which one understands, often together with the resulting comprehension: "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding" (Louis D. Brandeis).
Judgment is the ability to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions: "At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment" (Benjamin Franklin). See Also Synonyms at cause, mind, think.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Reason

Rea"son\, n. [OE. resoun, F. raison, fr. L. ratio (akin to Goth. rapj? number, account, garapjan to count, G. rede speech, reden to speak), fr. reri, ratus, to reckon, believe, think. Cf. Arraign, Rate, Ratio, Ration.]

1. A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.

I'll give him reasons for it. --Shak.

The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next wheel. --Sir M. Hale.

This reason did the ancient fathers render, why the church was called "catholic." --Bp. Pearson.

Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for that goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness. --Tillotson.

2. The faculty of capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.

We have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing anything divine or human, but by our five senses and our reason. --P. Browne.

In common and popular discourse, reason denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends. --Stewart.

Reason is used sometimes to express the whole of those powers which elevate man above the brutes, and constitute his rational nature, more especially, perhaps, his intellectual powers; sometimes to express the power of deduction or argumentation. --Stewart.

By the pure reason I mean the power by which we become possessed of principles. --Coleridge.

The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends. --Coleridge.

3. Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.

I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme. --Spenser.

But law in a free nation hath been ever public reason; the enacted reason of a parliament, which he denying to enact, denies to govern us by that which ought to be our law; interposing his own private reason, which to us is no law. --Milton.

The most probable way of bringing France to reason would be by the making an attempt on the Spanish West Indies. --Addison.

4. (Math.) Ratio; proportion. [Obs.] --Barrow.

By reason of, by means of; on account of; because of. "Spain is thin sown of people, partly by reason of the sterility of the soil." --Bacon.

In reason,

In all reason, in justice; with rational ground; in a right view.

When anything is proved by as good arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of, we ought not, in reason, to doubt of its existence. --Tillotson.

It is reason, it is reasonable; it is right. [Obs.]

Yet it were great reason, that those that have children should have greatest care of future times. --Bacon.

Syn: Motive; argument; ground; consideration; principle; sake; account; object; purpose; design. See Motive, Sense.

Reason

Rea"son\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reasoned; p. pr. & vb. n. Reasoning.] [Cf. F. raisonner. See Reason, n.]

1. 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.

2. 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.

Stand still, that I may reason with you, before the Lord, of all the righteous acts of the Lord. --1 Sam. xii. 7.

3. To converse; to compare opinions. --Shak.

Reason

Rea"son\, v. t. 1. To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend.

When they are clearly discovered, well digested, and well reasoned in every part, there is beauty in such a theory. --T. Burnet.

2. To support with reasons, as a request. [R.] --Shak.

3. To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.

Men that will not be reasoned into their senses. --L'Estrange.

4. To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; -- with down; as, to reason down a passion.

5. To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument; -- usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.

Language Translation for : Reason

Spanish: razón,

German: der Grund,

Japanese: 理由

More Translations »

reason (n.)

c.1225, "statement in an argument," also "intellectual faculty that adopts actions to ends," from Anglo-Fr. resoun, O.Fr. raison, from L. rationem (nom. ratio) "reckoning, understanding, motive, cause," from ratus, pp. of reri "to reckon, think," from PIE base *rei- "to reason, count" (cf. O.E. rædan "to advise; see read). Meaning "sanity" is recorded from, c.1380. The verb (c.1300) is from O.Fr. raisoner, from L.L. rationare "to discourse." Originally "to question (someone)," sense of "employ reasoning (with someone)" is from 1847, and that of "to think in a logical manner" is from 1593. Phrase it stands to reason is from 1632. Age of Reason "the Enlightenment" is first recorded 1794, as the title of Tom Paine's book.

Main Entry: rea·son
Function: noun
1 : an underlying ground, justification, purpose, motive, or inducement reasons for the termination in writing>
2 a : the faculty of comprehending, inferring, or distinguishing esp. in a fair and orderly way b : the proper and sane exercise of the mind

reason

see by reason of; in reason; it stands to reason; listen to reason; lose one's mind (reason); rhyme or reason; see reason; stand to reason; with reason.

reason

in philosophy, the faculty or process of drawing logical inferences. The term "reason" is also used in several other, narrower senses. Reason is in opposition to sensation, perception, feeling, desire, as the faculty (the existence of which is denied by empiricists) by which fundamental truths are intuitively apprehended. These fundamental truths are the causes or "reasons" of all derivative facts. According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, reason is the power of synthesizing into unity, by means of comprehensive principles, the concepts that are provided by the intellect. That reason which gives a priori principles Kant calls "pure reason," as distinguished from the "practical reason," which is specially concerned with the performance of actions. In formal logic the drawing of inferences (frequently called "ratiocination," from Latin ratiocinari, "to use the reasoning faculty") is classified from Aristotle on as deductive (from generals to particulars) and inductive (from particulars to generals).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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