raison d'être

American  

[rey-zohn de-truh, re-zawn de-tr^uh] / ˈreɪ zoʊn ˈdɛ trə, rɛ zɔ̃ ˈdɛ trə /

noun

raisons d'être plural

1. reason or justification for being or existence.

   Art is the artist's raison d'être.

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raison d'être British  

/ rɛzɔ̃ dɛtrə /

noun

1. reason or justification for existence

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raison d'être Cultural  

1. A basic, essential purpose; a reason to exist: “Professor Naylor argues that in the nuclear age, infantry forces have lost their raison d'être.” From French, meaning “reason for being.”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• raisons d'être
  plural

Etymology

Origin of raison d'être

Borrowed into English from French around 1865–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

raison d'être

Couple the above with ExpressVPN’s pretty stringent privacy policy, you begin to understand that ExpressVPN is more of an “old school” VPN provider, for which security and privacy are a VPN’s raison d’être.

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026

But, for smaller companies whose AI offerings are their raison d’être, there are pros and cons of the new era.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026

Fundamentally, the format's raison d'être is now under question.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025

Instead of a unified empire, the smaller kingdoms of the Heptarchy still dominate, their various dangerous machinations providing the raison d’être for the differing orders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2025

His raison d’être in the club is the same as in the city; it is to provide luxuries or amusements for the society, which the society could not generally obtain for itself.

From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Dill, Samuel