Definitions for the word "reason" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. n.
A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. n.
Ratio; proportion.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. n.
To exercise the rational faculty; to deduce inferences from premises; to perform the process of deduction or of induction; to ratiocinate; to reach conclusions by a systematic comparison of facts.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. n.
Hence: To carry on a process of deduction or of induction, in order to convince or to confute; to formulate and set forth propositions and the inferences from them; to argue.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. n.
To converse; to compare opinions.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. v. t.
To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. v. t.
To support with reasons, as a request.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. v. t.
To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
11. v. t.
To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; -- with down; as, to reason down a passion.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
12. v. t.
To find by logical processes; to explain or justify by reason or argument; -- usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
13. n.
1 motive, cause, or justification. 2 fact adduced or serving as this. 3 intellectual faculty by which conclusions are drawn from premisses. 4 sanity (lost his reason). 5 sense; sensible conduct; what is right, practical, or practicable; moderation. v. 1 form or try to reach conclusions by connected thought. 2 (foll. By with) use argument with (a person) by way of persuasion. 3 (foll. By that) conclude or assert in argument. 4 (foll. By into, out of) persuade or move by argument. 5 (foll. By out) think out (consequences etc.). 6 (often as reasoned adj.) Express in a logical way. 7 embody reason in (an amendment etc.). by reason of owing to. In (or within) reason within the bounds of moderation. With reason justifiably. [latin ratio]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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