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Decide vs Reason - What's the difference?

decide | reason | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between decide and reason

is that decide is to cause someone to come to a decision while reason is to persuade by reasoning or argument.

In intransitive terms the difference between decide and reason

is that decide is to make a judgment, especially after deliberation while reason is to converse; to compare opinions.

In obsolete terms the difference between decide and reason

is that decide is to cut off; to separate while reason is something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.

As a noun reason is

a cause.

decide

English

Verb

(decid)
  • To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
  • The election will be decided on foreign policies.
    We must decide our next move.
    Her last-minute goal decided the game.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
  • To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
  • You must decide between good and evil.
    I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
  • So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
  • To cause someone to come to a decision.
  • * 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
  • It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
  • (obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
  • * Fuller
  • Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * make up one's mind * choose * determine * pick

    reason

    English

    (wikipedia reason)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cause:
  • # That which causes something: an efficient cause, a proximate cause.
  • #* 1996 , (w), : Evolution and the Meanings of Life , page 198:
  • There is a reason why so many should be symmetrical: The selective advantage in a symmetrical complex is enjoyed by all the subunits
  • # A motive for an action or a determination.
  • #* 1806 , Anonymous, Select Notes to Book XXI, in, (Alexander Pope), translator, The (Odyssey) of (Homer) , volume 6 (London, F.J. du Roveray), page 37:
  • This is the reason why he proposes to offer a libation, to atone for the abuse of the day by their diversions.
  • #* 1881 , (Henry James), (The Portrait of a Lady) , chapter 10:
  • Ralph Touchett, for reasons best known to himself, had seen fit to say that Gilbert Osmond was not a good fellow
  • # An excuse: a thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation.
  • #* 1966 , (Graham Greene), ((Penguin Classics) edition, ISBN 0140184945), page 14:
  • I have forgotten the reason' he gave for not travelling by air. I felt sure that it was not the correct ' reason , and that he suffered from a heart trouble which he kept to himself.
  • (label) Rational]] thinking (or the capacity for it; the cognitive [[faculty, faculties, collectively, of conception, judgment, deduction and intuition.
  • * 1970 , (Hannah Arendt), On Violence (ISBN 0156695006), page 62:
  • And the specific distinction between man and beast is now, strictly speaking, no longer reason (the lumen naturale of the human animal) but science
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Magician’s brain , passage=The [Isaac] Newton that emerges from the [unpublished] manuscripts is far from the popular image of a rational practitioner of cold and pure reason . The architect of modern science was himself not very modern. He was obsessed with alchemy.}}
  • (label) Something reasonable, in accordance with thought; justice.
  • * (rfdate) (Edmund Spenser):
  • I was promised, on a time, To have reason for my rhyme.
  • Ratio; proportion.
  • (Barrow)

    Synonyms

    * (that which causes) cause * (motive for an action) rationale, motive * (thought offered in support) excuse

    Derived terms

    * age of reason * everything happens for a reason * for some reason * for no good reason * for XYZ reason * have reason * in reason * instrumental reason * reasonability * reasonable * reasonableness * reasonist * reasonless * rhyme or reason * stand to reason * unreason * with reason * within reason

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • To converse; to compare opinions.
  • To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss.
  • I reasoned the matter with my friend.
  • (rare) To support with reasons, as a request.
  • To persuade by reasoning or argument.
  • to reason''' one into a belief; to '''reason one out of his plan
  • To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons.
  • to reason down a passion
  • To find by logical process; to explain or justify by reason or argument.
  • to reason''' out the causes of the librations of the moon

    Derived terms

    * reasoner * reason out

    Statistics

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