raisons

Raisons is the plural form of the French noun raison, which means reason, justification, motive, or grounds. In French, raisons are the explanations or justifications given for actions, beliefs, or decisions, and they can refer to logical arguments, personal motives, or practical considerations. The term appears in everyday speech as well as formal writing.

Etymology and form: Raison derives from Old French and ultimately from Latin ratio, meaning calculation, account, or reason. The plural form raisons follows standard French gender and number agreement, with pronunciations adapting to the surrounding syntax. The concept links closely to English “reason,” sharing historical roots across Romance and Germanic language families.

Usage in French: In addition to its generic sense of reason, raison is used in idiomatic expressions. Raison d’être denotes the essential purpose or justification for someone or something’s existence. Other phrases, such as avoir raison (to be right, or to have the correct reasoning) and raisonner (to reason, to argue logically), illustrate the word’s cognitive and justificatory dimensions. The per-unit rate sense, expressed by à raison de, describes quantities or costs at a given rate (for example, a price per item).

In English contexts: Raisons is uncommon outside discussions of French language or translations. When translated, it most often becomes “reasons” or “causes.” The French phrase raison d’être is frequently used in English to denote a person’s or organization’s defining purpose. The concept of reason in philosophy and everyday discourse remains broader in English, while raisons primarily serves as a direct linguistic term for multiple grounds in French usage.

See also: raison d’être, raisonner, raison sociale (business name), translation notes on French noun usage.