raison d'êtres

A form of raison d'être — A 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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Meanings

noun
  1. nonstandardpluralplural of raison d'être

    On Broadway where inflamed rudiments belt out their

    1985, "Begin" by Rae Armantrout, in "Two Poems," boundary 2, published by Duke University Press, Vol. 14, No. 1/2, Autumn 1985 - Winter 1986, JSTOR, page 47
    2 more examples

    Dissatisfaction with colonial education gave revivalism one of its raison d'êtres.

    1990, Krishna Kumar, "Hindu Revivalism and Education in North-Central India," Social Scientist, Vol. 18, No. 10, Oct. 1990, JSTOR, pg. 4

    Here in Los Angeles, where impression management and physical maintenance are not just rituals but raisons d'etres, focusing on these aspects of development has a special relevance.

    2001, Jane McNamara, book review of Building Lives: Constructing Rites and Passages by Neil Harris, in The Public Historian (National Council on Public History), published by University of California Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, Autumn 2001, JSTOR, pg.126
Cite this entry
APA

raison d'êtres. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raison%20d'%C3%AAtres

MLA

“raison d'êtres.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raison%20d'%C3%AAtres. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “raison d'êtres,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/raison%20d'%C3%AAtres.

Source: raison d'êtres on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.