See raison d'être on Wiktionary
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"examples": [
{
"text": "Surfing became his raison d’être.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "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 of Kenya,\" Anthropology & Humanism Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1988, pg. 41, Full article - .pdf)",
"text": "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."
},
{
"ref": "1968, Joan Didion, “Notes from a Native Daughter”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock: Bantam Books, page 174:",
"text": "One after another, styles supplant one another. The most enduring twentieth-century school, Abstract Expressionism, held sway for at most twenty years, from 1940 to 1960, then to be followed by a wild succession- \"Pop\" lasting perhaps five years, \"Op\" managing to grip the public's attention for two or three years, then the emergence, approximately enough, of 'Kinetic Art' whose very raison d’être is transience.",
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{
"ref": "2003, Seta Fumihiko, Kim Chang-Gi, Lai Shen-Chiang and Onishi Takashi, Abstract for \"A Study on the Transition of National Development Strategies in Korea, Taiwan and Japan, Characterized by Developmentalism\" (「開発主義に特徴付けられた 日本・台湾・韓国の国土開発戦略の変遷についての一考察」), full paper is pp. 52-61 of \"Proceedings\", International Symposium on City Planning 2003, The City Planning Institute of Japan, Sapporo, Japan, Abstract",
"text": "National development plans and programs are in particular under harsh discussions and criticism including these raison d'etre in some countries, for these plans and programs have supported construction of rather inefficient infrastructure in less-development area."
},
{
"ref": "2007, Chambi Chachage, \"Bringing African Studies Back to Africa: Beyond the ‘African-Africanist’ Divides,\" paper prepared for the 2nd AEGIS Conference on African Studies (ECAS) at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, 11-14th July, 2007 (Abstract, Full paper - .doc)",
"text": "With hindsight knowledge, it is interesting to note that these three raison d’etre and their ramifications were situated in a broader context of contestations over the whole enterprise of knowledge production and consumption."
},
{
"ref": "2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:",
"text": "Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town's worst (exemplified by its final review: \"Please avoid at all costs\"), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.",
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"Reason for being. The claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone."
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"word": "be-all and end-all"
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{
"word": "my everything"
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"word": "raison d'État"
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"code": "cmn",
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"roman": "cúnzài de lǐyóu",
"sense": "reason for being",
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"word": "olemassaolon syy"
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{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
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{
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"code": "de",
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"word": "létok"
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"word": "létjogosultság"
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"word": "ragione d'essere"
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{
"alt": "そんざいりゆう",
"code": "ja",
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"roman": "sonzai riyū",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "存在理由"
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"code": "ja",
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"word": "生き甲斐"
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"code": "ko",
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"roman": "jonjaeiyu",
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"word": "존재이유"
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"code": "ko",
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"code": "fa",
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"roman": "'ellat-e vojudi",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "علت وجودی"
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"word": "racja bytu"
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"word": "raison d'être"
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{
"code": "pt",
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"code": "ro",
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"word": "rațiune de a fi"
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"roman": "smysl suščestvovánija",
"sense": "reason for being",
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"word": "смысл существова́ния"
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"word": "raciuni di siri"
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"word": "existensberättigande"
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"code": "tl",
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"word": "balungkaling"
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"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "varoluş/var olma nedeni/sebebi"
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"english": "\"As a person, you're not just a thing, are you?\" Debby asks rhetorically. Her raison d'être seems to be to answer no to the question in all initiatives she undertakes.",
"ref": "2023 March 24, Jonathan Sindihebura, “Debby Friday: ”För mig är klubben också en kyrka” [Debby Friday: \"For me, the club is also a church\"]”, in Gaffa (magazine):",
"text": "\"Som person är du väl inte bara en sak?\", frågar Debby retoriskt. Hennes raison d'être verkar vara att svara nej på frågan i alla initiativ hon tar för sig.",
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"english": "What is clear is that most people simply feel good about working. It somehow gives meaning to existence - a raison d'être in the vale of tears - and makes one put up with one's own and others' miseries, of which one can be provided in ample measure.",
"ref": "2019 February 14, Sven Cavallin, “”En duktig sumprunkare är icke att förakta – och poliserna måste få göra vad de drömde om” [\"A good corf-rockers is not to be despised - and the police must be allowed to do what they dreamed of\"]”, in Dagens Juridik:",
"text": "Klart är nock att de flesta människor helt enkelt mår bra av att arbeta. Det ger på något sätt en mening åt tillvaron – ett raison d’être i jämmerdalen – och får en att stå ut med egna och andras eländen, varav man i rikt mått kan förses.",
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{
"english": "Together with him, supported by him, she is a glorious revelation of the divine itself, the noble, the beautiful, \"das Ewig-Weibliche\", as Goethe says, without him she would be only a parasite, taking up space for other beings of greater raison d'être than she.",
"ref": "1881, Ernst Lundquist, Agnes. Ett lefnadslopp, page 119:",
"text": "Tillsammans med honom, stödd af honom är hon en härlig uppenbarelse af det gudomliga själft, det ädla, det sköna, \"das Ewig-Weibliche\", som Goethe säger, utan honom vore hon endast en parasit, som upptoge utrymme för andra varelser med större raison d'être än hon.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"raison d'être"
],
"id": "en-raison_d'être-sv-noun-vtUe1yKb",
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"raw_glosses": [
"(somewhat formal) raison d'être"
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],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Surfing became his raison d’être.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "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 of Kenya,\" Anthropology & Humanism Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1988, pg. 41, Full article - .pdf)",
"text": "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."
},
{
"ref": "1968, Joan Didion, “Notes from a Native Daughter”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock: Bantam Books, page 174:",
"text": "One after another, styles supplant one another. The most enduring twentieth-century school, Abstract Expressionism, held sway for at most twenty years, from 1940 to 1960, then to be followed by a wild succession- \"Pop\" lasting perhaps five years, \"Op\" managing to grip the public's attention for two or three years, then the emergence, approximately enough, of 'Kinetic Art' whose very raison d’être is transience.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Seta Fumihiko, Kim Chang-Gi, Lai Shen-Chiang and Onishi Takashi, Abstract for \"A Study on the Transition of National Development Strategies in Korea, Taiwan and Japan, Characterized by Developmentalism\" (「開発主義に特徴付けられた 日本・台湾・韓国の国土開発戦略の変遷についての一考察」), full paper is pp. 52-61 of \"Proceedings\", International Symposium on City Planning 2003, The City Planning Institute of Japan, Sapporo, Japan, Abstract",
"text": "National development plans and programs are in particular under harsh discussions and criticism including these raison d'etre in some countries, for these plans and programs have supported construction of rather inefficient infrastructure in less-development area."
},
{
"ref": "2007, Chambi Chachage, \"Bringing African Studies Back to Africa: Beyond the ‘African-Africanist’ Divides,\" paper prepared for the 2nd AEGIS Conference on African Studies (ECAS) at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, 11-14th July, 2007 (Abstract, Full paper - .doc)",
"text": "With hindsight knowledge, it is interesting to note that these three raison d’etre and their ramifications were situated in a broader context of contestations over the whole enterprise of knowledge production and consumption."
},
{
"ref": "2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:",
"text": "Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town's worst (exemplified by its final review: \"Please avoid at all costs\"), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"Reason for being. The claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone."
],
"links": [
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"reason"
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[
"existence",
"existence"
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"tags": [
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"code": "ar",
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"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "سَبَب الْوُجُود"
},
{
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{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "cúnzài de lǐyóu",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "存在的理由"
},
{
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"masculine"
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{
"code": "cs",
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"tags": [
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},
{
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{
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{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "olemassaolon syy"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "syy olla olemassa"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "tarkoitus"
},
{
"code": "fr",
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"tags": [
"feminine"
],
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},
{
"code": "de",
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"tags": [
"feminine"
],
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},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Daseinszweck"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Existenzberechtigung"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Lebensbestimmung"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Lebenszweck"
},
{
"code": "de",
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"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Lebensinhalt"
},
{
"code": "hu",
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"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "létindok"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "létok"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "létjogosultság"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "ragione d'essere"
},
{
"alt": "そんざいりゆう",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "sonzai riyū",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "存在理由"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "ikigai",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "生き甲斐"
},
{
"alt": "存在理由",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jonjaeiyu",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "존재이유"
},
{
"alt": "存在理由",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jonjaeriyu",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"North-Korea"
],
"word": "존재리유"
},
{
"code": "fa",
"lang": "Persian",
"roman": "'ellat-e vojudi",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "علت وجودی"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "racja bytu"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
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"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "raison d'être"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
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},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "rațiune de a fi"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "smysl suščestvovánija",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "смысл существова́ния"
},
{
"code": "scn",
"lang": "Sicilian",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "raciuni di siri"
},
{
"code": "sl",
"lang": "Slovene",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "raison d'être"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "razón de ser"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "existensberättigande"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "raison d'être"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "balungkaling"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "reason for being",
"word": "varoluş/var olma nedeni/sebebi"
}
],
"word": "raison d'être"
}
{
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{
"english": "\"As a person, you're not just a thing, are you?\" Debby asks rhetorically. Her raison d'être seems to be to answer no to the question in all initiatives she undertakes.",
"ref": "2023 March 24, Jonathan Sindihebura, “Debby Friday: ”För mig är klubben också en kyrka” [Debby Friday: \"For me, the club is also a church\"]”, in Gaffa (magazine):",
"text": "\"Som person är du väl inte bara en sak?\", frågar Debby retoriskt. Hennes raison d'être verkar vara att svara nej på frågan i alla initiativ hon tar för sig.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"english": "What is clear is that most people simply feel good about working. It somehow gives meaning to existence - a raison d'être in the vale of tears - and makes one put up with one's own and others' miseries, of which one can be provided in ample measure.",
"ref": "2019 February 14, Sven Cavallin, “”En duktig sumprunkare är icke att förakta – och poliserna måste få göra vad de drömde om” [\"A good corf-rockers is not to be despised - and the police must be allowed to do what they dreamed of\"]”, in Dagens Juridik:",
"text": "Klart är nock att de flesta människor helt enkelt mår bra av att arbeta. Det ger på något sätt en mening åt tillvaron – ett raison d’être i jämmerdalen – och får en att stå ut med egna och andras eländen, varav man i rikt mått kan förses.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"english": "Together with him, supported by him, she is a glorious revelation of the divine itself, the noble, the beautiful, \"das Ewig-Weibliche\", as Goethe says, without him she would be only a parasite, taking up space for other beings of greater raison d'être than she.",
"ref": "1881, Ernst Lundquist, Agnes. Ett lefnadslopp, page 119:",
"text": "Tillsammans med honom, stödd af honom är hon en härlig uppenbarelse af det gudomliga själft, det ädla, det sköna, \"das Ewig-Weibliche\", som Goethe säger, utan honom vore hon endast en parasit, som upptoge utrymme för andra varelser med större raison d'être än hon.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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],
"raw_glosses": [
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],
"synonyms": [
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"word": "existensberättigande"
}
],
"tags": [
"formal",
"neuter"
]
}
],
"word": "raison d'être"
}
Download raw JSONL data for raison d'être meaning in All languages combined (17.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.