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reason

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

reezuhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹizən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

    “We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil.”

  2. A rational motive for a belief or action

    “The reason that war was declared.”

  3. uncountable

    Rational thinking (or the capacity for it); the cognitive faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.

  4. A motive for an action or a determination.

  5. 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.

  6. An explanation of the cause of some phenomenon

    “The reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly.”

verb

  1. intransitive

    To deduce or come to a conclusion by being rational.

  2. intransitive

    To perform a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to argue.

  3. transitiveusually with out

    To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.

  4. Decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion

    “We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house.”

  5. transitive

    To persuade by reasoning or argument.

  6. transitivewith down

    To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

Used this way, reason is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

How It’s Used

The word’s distinct uses, one example each.

  • Rationalnoun

    “We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil.”

  • Explanationnoun

    “The reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly.”

  • Deduce / decideverb

    “We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house.”

More ways to use reason

  • “We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house.”verb
  • “We are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil.”noun
  • “The reason that war was declared.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

good reasonsome reasonmain reason

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • reasoningnounInflected form

    Thinking that is coherent and logical.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • reasonableadjectiveDerived adjective

    Showing reason or sound judgment.

  • reasonablyadverbDerived adverb

    To certain extent or degree.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • reason outverbCompound term

    Decide by reasoning.

  • reasoning backwardnounCompound term

    The reasoning involved when you assume the conclusion is true and reason backward to the evidence.

  • reasoning by eliminationnounCompound term

    Analysis of a problem into alternative possibilities followed by the systematic rejection of unacceptable alternatives.

  • age of reasonnounCompound term

    A movement in Europe from about 1650 until 1800 that advocated the use of reason and individualism instead of tradition and established doctrine.

  • deductive reasoningnounCompound term

    Reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect).

  • inductive reasoningnounCompound term

    Reasoning from detailed facts to general principles.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination

rationality

verb

Sense: to deduce

conclude

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.