raison d'être
/ˌɹeɪzɒ̃ ˈdɛtɹə/US/ˌɹeɪzɑn ˈdɛtɹə/
raison d'être noun: a reason for being; the claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone.
Noun
raison d'être (plural raisons d'être or raison d'être or (nonstandard) raison d'êtres)
- A reason for being; the claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone.
- Surfing became his raison d’être.
- These raison d'etre and this evolution are not merely the achievement of men's conscious activity but are the unintentional results of their social activity.1966, Maurice Godelier, Rationality and irrationality in economics, London, published by Francois Maspero, pg. 317 (quoted in Michael W. Coy, "Tugen Monopoly: Capitalism and Conflict in the Mountains...
raison d'être meaning in Tagalog, Arabic, Persian and Thai
raison d'être in Tagalog
- reason for being
- balungkaling
raison d'être in Arabic
- reason for being
- سَبَب الْوُجُود sabab al-wujūd
raison d'être in Persian
- reason for being
- علت وجودی 'ellat-e vojudi
raison d'être in Thai
- reason for being
- เหตุผลของการดำรงอยู่ hèet-pǒn-kɔ̌ɔng-gāan-dām-rōng-yùu
Examples of raison d'être in a sentence
- It [Sacramento] is a town in which defense industry and its absentee owners are suddenly the most important facts; a town which has never had more people or more money, but has lost its raison d'être.1968, Joan Didion, “Notes from a Native Daughter”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
- Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être.2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:
Forms of raison d'être
| plural | raisons d'être |
|---|---|
| plural | raison d'être |
| alternative form | raison d'etre |
| plural (nonstandard) | raison d'êtres |
Origin of raison d'être
Borrowed from French raison d'être (literally “a reason to be/exist”).
Questions about raison d'être
- What does raison d'être mean?
- Raison d'être means a reason for being; the claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone.
- What is raison d'être in Tagalog?
- Raison d'être in Tagalog is balungkaling. See Raison d'être meaning in Tagalog.
- How do you use raison d'être in a sentence?
- It [Sacramento] is a town in which defense industry and its absentee owners are suddenly the most important facts; a town which has never had more people or more money, but has lost its raison d'être.
- What part of speech is raison d'être?
- Raison d'être is a noun.
- How do you pronounce raison d'être?
- Raison d'être is pronounced /ˌɹeɪzɒ̃ ˈdɛtɹə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of raison d'être?
- The plural of raison d'être is raisons d'être.
Words near raison d'être in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: raison d'être (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-raison d'etre.ogg.
Cite this entry: “raison d'être.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/raison_d%27%C3%AAtre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.