View synonyms for raison d'être

raison d'être

[ rey-zohn de-truh; French re-zawn de-truh ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, plural rai·sons d'ê·tre [rey, -zohnz , de, -tr, uh, r, e-zaw, n, , de, -t, r, uh].

reason or justification for being or existence:
Art is the artist's raison d'être.

raison d'être

/ rɛzɔ̃ dɛtrə /

raison d'être

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.”

Borrowed into English from French around 1865–70

The discussion of this proposal seems to make plain the raison d'etre for the existence of the Sentinel.

To her, as to the wily widow, this was the incident of the evening—in fact, the whole raison d'etre of it.

The question was sufficiently important to demand an experimental solution; hence the raison d'etre of the present demonstration.

So my reader will perhaps understand the raison d'etre of the proverb, "The lawyers own England."

And since a cult must have an object of group hate as a raison-d'etre, he chose the androids.

Browse