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raison d'etre
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| Main Entry: |
raison d'etre
|
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | reason for being |
| Synonyms: | basis, justification for existing, rationale, reason for existing, reason why |
| Main Entry: | function |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | capacity, job |
| Synonyms: | action, activity, affair, behavior, business, charge, concern, duty, employment, exercise, faculty, goal, mark, mission, object, objective, occupation, office, operation, part, post, power, province, purpose, raison d'être, responsibility, role, service, situation, target, task, use, utility, work |
| Main Entry: | justification |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | reason, excuse |
| Synonyms: | absolution, account, acquittal, advocacy, answer, apologia, apology, approval, argument, basis, confirmation, defense, exculpation, exoneration, explanation, extenuation, grounds, idea, mitigation, palliation, palliative, plea, pretext, raison d'être, rationale, rationalization, rebuttal, redemption, reply, response, salvation, sanctification, song and dance, story, support, validation, vindication, warrant, whatfor, wherefore, whitewashing, whole idea, why and wherefore |
| Main Entry: | rationale |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | logic for belief, action |
| Synonyms: | account, excuse, explanation, exposition, grounds, hypothesis, justification, motivation, motive, philosophy, principle, raison d'être, rationalization, reason, reasons, song and dance, sour grapes, story*, the big idea, the whole idea, theory, whatfor, why and wherefore, whyfor |
| Notes: | a rationale is given for a future course of action, whereas a rationalization is offered for a past action |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
| Main Entry: | justification |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
Related
Adjectives: |
apologetic, defensible, exculpatory, excusable, justifiable, palliative, pardonable, plausible, specious, veniable, venial, vindicated, vindicating, vindicative, vindicatory
|
| Main Entry: | rationale |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
Related
Adjectives: |
Aristotelian, analytical, argumentative, attributable, attributed, automorphic, biconditional, cogent, cognitive, coherent, controversial, controvertible, cumulative, cut-and-dried, debatable, definitive, derivable from, dialectic, dianoetic, didactic, discursive, discursory, disputatious, due to, epistemic, esemplastic, eudemonistic, facultative, forensic, hebamic, implausible, irrelevant, logical, lucid, moot, noetic, owing to, paralogic, perspicacious, perspicuous, polemical, putative, rational, rationalistic, reasoning, referable, referrible, relevant, specious, synthetic, tenable, thought-out, unilateral, viable, watertight, well-founded, well-grounded, well-taken
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