9 results for: reasoning

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

rea·son·ing

Audio Help [ree-zuh-ning, reez-ning] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	the act or process of a person who reasons.

2.	the process of forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.

3.	the reasons, arguments, proofs, etc., resulting from this process.

[Origin: 1325–75; ME resoninge. See reason, -ing²

]

—Related forms

rea·son·ing·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
reasoning

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

rea·son Audio Help (rē'zən) Pronunciation Key
n.

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.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

rea·son·ing Audio Help (rē'zə-nĭng) Pronunciation Key
n.

Use of reason, especially to form conclusions, inferences, or judgments.
Evidence or arguments used in thinking or argumentation.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

reasoning
adjective
1.	endowed with the capacity to reason [syn: intelligent]
noun
1.	thinking that is coherent and logical

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version) - Cite This Source - Share This
ˈreasoning noun

the act or process of reaching a decision, conclusion etc
Example: I don't understand his reasoning at all.

Arabic:	تَفْكير، حُجَج وبراهين
Chinese (Simplified):	论证
Chinese (Traditional):	論證
Czech:	uvažování
Danish:	ræsonnering
Dutch:	redenering
Estonian:	põhjendus, arutlemine
Finnish:	järkeily
French:	raisonnement
German:	die Argumentation
Greek:	συλλογισμός
Hungarian:	gondolkodás
Icelandic:	röksemdafærsla
Indonesian:	nalar
Italian:	ragionamento

Japanese:	論理
Korean:	추론, 논리적 사고
Latvian:	spriešana; domu gaita
Lithuanian:	samprotavimas
Norwegian:	resonnering; resonnement, tankegang
Polish:	rozumowanie
Portuguese (Brazil):	raciocínio
Portuguese (Portugal):	raciocínio
Romanian:	raţionament, gândire
Russian:	рассуждение, аргументация
Slovak:	uvažovanie
Slovenian:	razmišljanje
Spanish:	razonamiento
Swedish:	resonemang
Turkish:	akıl yürütme, mantık

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Reasoning

Ar`gu*men*ta"tion\, n. [L. argumentatio, from argumentari: cf. F. argumentation.]

1. The act of forming reasons, making inductions, drawing conclusions, and applying them to the case in discussion; the operation of inferring propositions, not known or admitted as true, from facts or principles known, admitted, or proved to be true.

Which manner of argumentation, how false and naught it is, . . . every man that hath with perceiveth. --Tyndale.

2. Debate; discussion.

Syn: Reasoning; discussion; controversy. See Reasoning.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Reasoning

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Reasoning

Rea"son*ing\, n. 1. The act or process of adducing a reason or reasons; manner of presenting one's reasons.

2. That which is offered in argument; proofs or reasons when arranged and developed; course of argument.

His reasoning was sufficiently profound. --Macaulay.

Syn: Argumentation; argument.

Usage: Reasoning, Argumentation. Few words are more interchanged than these; and yet, technically, there is a difference between them. Reasoning is the broader term, including both deduction and induction. Argumentation denotes simply the former, and descends from the whole to some included part; while reasoning embraces also the latter, and ascends from a part to a whole. See Induction. Reasoning is occupied with ideas and their relations; argumentation has to do with the forms of logic. A thesis is set down: you attack, I defend it; you insist, I prove; you distinguish, I destroy your distinctions; my replies balance or overturn your objections. Such is argumentation. It supposes that there are two sides, and that both agree to the same rules. Reasoning, on the other hand, is often a natural process, by which we form, from the general analogy of nature, or special presumptions in the case, conclusions which have greater or less degrees of force, and which may be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience.

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