raison d\'être

[rey-zohn de-truh; Fr. re-zawn de-truh]

rai·son d'ê·tre

[rey-zohn de-truh; Fr. re-zawn de-truh]
noun, plural rai·sons d'ê·tre [rey-zohnz de-truh; Fr. re-zawn de-truh] .
reason or justification for being or existence: Art is the artist's raison d'être.

Origin:
1865–70; < French
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Raison d'être is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
Collins
World English Dictionary
raison d'être (rɛzɔ̃ dɛtrə)
 
n , pl raisons d'être
reason or justification for existence

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
raison d'être [(ray-zohnn det-ruh)]

A basic, essential purpose; a reason to exist: “Professor Naylor argues that in the nuclear age, infantry forces have lost their raison d'être.” From French, meaning “reason for being.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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