raison d'etre

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

So they feel like it is their signature, their raison d’etre.

From Slate

Facebook’s “imperative,” in Bosworth’s telling — its raison d’etre — was to be that product that everyone used, the tool that unified at last a fragmented human race in a single, vast network.

From Washington Post

Rogan now says he will do a better job attempting to learn the issues he doesn’t understand, but his whole raison d’être is that he doesn’t learn.

From Slate

In blaming a foreign conspiracy for the 2011 popular uprising, the regime was simultaneously saying that its security apparatus was remarkably ineffective in pre-empting, let alone containing, these “external threats” that were essential to their professed raison d’être, and for which Syrians had sacrificed decades of rights.

From New York Times

Yet Franco manages to wag a not-too-subtle finger at viewers, reminding them to check their assumptions about Neil while at the same time keeping the raison d’être of that main character utterly hidden.

From New York Times