Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - reason

(reasons, reasoning, reasoned) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. The reason for something is a fact or situation which explains why it happens or what causes it to happen. There is a reason for every important thing that happens... Who would have a reason to want to kill her? N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft N for n, N to-inf 2. If you say that you have reason to believe something or to have a particular emotion, you mean that you have evidence for your belief or there is a definite cause of your feeling. They had reason to believe there could be trouble... He had every reason to be upset... N-UNCOUNT: usu N to-inf 3. The ability that people have to think and to make sensible judgments can be referred to as reason. ...a conflict between emotion and reason... N-UNCOUNT 4. If you reason that something is true, you decide that it is true after thinking carefully about all the facts. I reasoned that changing my diet would lower my cholesterol level... ‘Listen,’ I reasoned, ‘it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Adam’s up to.’ VERB: V that, V with quote see also reasoned, reasoning 5. If one thing happens by reason of another, it happens because of it. (FORMAL) The boss retains enormous influence by reason of his position... PHRASE: PHR n 6. If you try to make someone listen to reason, you try to persuade them to listen to sensible arguments and be influenced by them. The company’s top executives had refused to listen to reason. PHRASE: V inflects 7. If you say that something happened or was done for no reason, for no good reason, or for no reason at all, you mean that there was no obvious reason why it happened or was done. The guards, he said, would punch them for no reason... For no reason at all the two men started to laugh. PHRASE: PHR with cl 8. If a person or thing is someone’s reason for living or their reason for being, they are the most important thing in that person’s life. Chloe is my reason for living. PHRASE: usu poss PHR 9. If you say that something happened or is true for some reason, you mean that you know it happened or is true, but you do not know why. For some inexplicable reason she was attracted to Patrick. PHRASE: PHR with cl c darkgreen]vagueness 10. If you say that you will do anything within reason, you mean that you will do anything that is fair or reasonable and not too extreme. I will take any job that comes along, within reason... PHRASE: PHR with cl, n PHR 11. rhyme or reason: see rhyme to see reason: see see it stands to reason: see stand