reason — OET · Shobdo

reason

noun

1 he cited a lack of funds as the main reason for his decision:

cause, grounds, ground, basis, rationale;

motive, motivation, purpose, point, aim, intention, objective, goal, occasion, impetus, inducement, incentive;

explanation, justification, case, argument, defence, apology, vindication, excuse, pretext, rationalization;

warrant;

the whys and wherefores;

Latin apologia.

2 a rising crescendo of postmodern voices today rail against reason and science:

rationality, logic, logical thought, scientific thinking, reasoning, thought, cognition;

the mind, intellect, intelligence, intellectuality;

Philosophy nous;

rare ratiocination.

▷antonyms emotion, feeling.

3 he was afraid of losing his reason:

sanity, mind, mental faculties, mental health, soundness of mind;

senses, wits;

informal marbles.

4 he continues, against reason, to love the woman passionately:

good sense, good judgement, common sense, sense, judgement, understanding, wisdom, sagacity;

reasonableness, moderation, propriety;

practicality, practicability, advisability.

□ by reason of

those incapable of supporting themselves by reason of age, infirmity, or disease:

because of, on account of, as a result of, as a consequence of, owing to, due to, by virtue of, thanks to, through;

British off the back of.

□ with reason

he was anxious, with reason, about his own political survival:

justifiably, justly, legitimately, rightly, properly, reasonably.

verb

1 such a child, left to himself, grows up unable to express himself and unable to reason:

think rationally, think logically, think straight, use one's mind, use one's common sense, use one's head, use one's brain, think things through, cogitate;

intellectualize;

informal put on one's thinking cap;

rare cerebrate, ratiocinate, logicize.

2 Scott reasoned that if Annabel were having a heart attack, she wouldn't be able to talk on the telephone:

calculate, come to the conclusion, conclude, reckon, think, consider, be of the opinion, be of the view, judge, deduce, infer, surmise;

North American, informal figure.

3 she was growing too tired to reason it out:

work out, find an answer/solution to, think through, come to a conclusion about, sort out, make sense of, get to the bottom of, puzzle out, solve;

informal figure out.

4 I tried to reason with her, but without success:

talk round, bring round, win round, persuade, coax, prevail on, convince;

show someone the error of their ways, make someone see the light.

word links	reason
rational relating to reason

reason Oxford Dictionary of English