reasoning

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Related to reasoning: inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, Logical reasoning

rea·son·ing

(rē′zə-nĭng)

1. Use of reason, especially to form conclusions, inferences, or judgments.

2. Evidence or arguments used in thinking or argumentation.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

reasoning

(ˈriːzənɪŋ)

1. the act or process of drawing conclusions from facts, evidence, etc

2. the arguments, proofs, etc, so adduced

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

rea•son•ing

(ˈri zə nɪŋ, ˈriz nɪŋ)

n.

1. the act or process of a person who reasons.

2. the process of forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.

3. the reasons, arguments, proofs, etc., resulting from this process.

[1325–75]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	reasoning - thinking that is coherent and logical abstract thought, logical thinking cerebration, intellection, mentation, thinking, thought process, thought - the process of using your mind to consider something carefully; "thinking always made him frown"; "she paused for thought" analytic thinking, analysis - the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations line of reasoning, logical argument, argumentation, argument, line - a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the methodical process of logical reasoning; "I can't follow your line of reasoning" conjecture - reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence deductive reasoning, synthesis, deduction - reasoning from the general to the particular (or from cause to effect) illation, inference - the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation prediction, anticipation, prevision - the act of predicting (as by reasoning about the future) ratiocination - logical and methodical reasoning reasoning backward, regress - the reasoning involved when you assume the conclusion is true and reason backward to the evidence synthetic thinking, synthesis - the combination of ideas into a complex whole
Adj.	1.	reasoning - endowed with the capacity to reason thinking, intelligent rational - consistent with or based on or using reason; "rational behavior"; "a process of rational inference"; "rational thought"

reasoning

noun

1. thinking, thought, reason, analysis, logic, deduction, cogitation, ratiocination the reasoning behind the decision

2. case, argument, proof, interpretation, hypothesis, exposition, train of thought She was not really convinced by their line of reasoning.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

تَفْكير، حُجَج وبراهين

uvažování

ræsonnering

Argumentation

razonamiento argumento razón

raisonnement

röksemdafærsla

ragionamento

redenering

resonnement resonnering

akıl yürütmemantık

论证

reasoning

[ˈriːznɪŋ]

A. N → razonamiento m, lógica f
I don't see the reasoning behind this decision → no veo la lógica or el razonamiento que hay detrás de esta decisión
this line of reasoning is supported by recent figures → estos argumentos están respaldados por cifras recientes

B. ADJ → racional

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

reasoning

[ˈriːz^ənɪŋ]

n → raisonnement m
the reasoning behind sth → le raisonnement qui sous-tend qch

modif [ability, skills] → de raisonnement

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

reasoning

n → logisches Denken; (= arguing) → Argumentation f; I don’t follow your reasoning → ich kann Ihrem Gedankengang or Ihrer Argumentation nicht folgen; this (piece of) reasoning is faulty → das Argument ist falsch; his reasoning is all wrong → er argumentiert ganz falsch, seine Argumente sind falsch

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

reasoning

[ˈriːznɪŋ] n → ragionamento

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

reason

(ˈriːzn) noun

1. something which makes something happen, describes why it happened, should happen or is going to happen etc. What is the reason for this noise?; What is your reason for going to London?; The reason (why) I am going is that I want to.

2. the power of the mind to think, form opinions and judgements etc. Only man has reason – animals have not.

verb

1. to (be able to) think, form opinions and judgements etc. Man alone has the ability to reason.

2. to argue; to work out after some thought. She reasoned that if he had caught the 6.30 p.m. train, he would not be home before 8.00.

ˈreasonable adjective

1. sensible. a reasonable suggestion.

2. willing to listen to argument; acting with good sense. You will find him very reasonable.

3. fair; correct; which one should or could accept. Is $10 a reasonable price for this book?

4. satisfactory; as much as one might expect or want. There was a reasonable number of people at the meeting.

ˈreasonableness noun

ˈreasonably adverb

He behaved very reasonably; The car is reasonably priced; The meeting was reasonably well attended.

ˈreasoning noun

the act or process of reaching a decision, conclusion etc. I don't understand his reasoning at all.

have reason to (believe/think etc)

to feel justified in (believing etc). I have (good) reason to think that he is lying.

it stands to reason

it is obvious or logical. If you go to bed so late it stands to reason that you will be tired next morning.

listen to reason

to allow oneself to be persuaded to do something more sensible than what one was going to do; to pay attention to common sense.

lose one's reason

to become insane.

reason with

to argue with (a person) in order to persuade him to be more sensible. We tried to reason with the worried mother but she went out alone in the storm to look for the child.

see reason

to (be persuaded to) be more sensible than one is or has been.

within reason

within the limits of good sense. I'll do anything / go anywhere within reason.

References in classic literature ?

And as all choice and reasoning can be really calculated--because there will some day be discovered the laws of our so-called free will--so, joking apart, there may one day be something like a table constructed of them, so that we really shall choose in accordance with it.

Here I, for instance, quite naturally want to live, in order to satisfy all my capacities for life, and not simply my capacity for reasoning, that is, not simply one twentieth of my capacity for life.

View in context

If the consciousness of freedom were not a separate and independent source of self-consciousness it would be subject to reasoning and to experience, but in fact such subjection does not exist and is inconceivable.

However often experiment and reasoning may show a man that under the same conditions and with the same character he will do the same thing as before, yet when under the same conditions and with the same character he approaches for the thousandth time the action that always ends in the same way, he feels as certainly convinced as before the experiment that he can act as he pleases.

View in context

However, in the disturbed state of my mind, I did go into the deserted court and did look at all the footprints I could find there, seeking for some indication, as a basis for reasoning.

View in context

From the topmost peak of reason James teaches to cease reasoning and to have faith that all is well and will be well--the old, oh, ancient old, acrobatic flip of the metaphysicians whereby they reasoned reason quite away in order to escape the pessimism consequent upon the grim and honest exercise of reason.

View in context

This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically."

Now let me endeavour to show you the different steps in my reasoning. To begin at the beginning.

View in context

and, reasoning from analogy, as you say, if there be mines in South America, ought there not to be mines in North America too?”

View in context

In the same way I thought that the sciences contained in books (such of them at least as are made up of probable reasonings, without demonstrations), composed as they are of the opinions of many different individuals massed together, are farther removed from truth than the simple inferences which a man of good sense using his natural and unprejudiced judgment draws respecting the matters of his experience.

The long chains of simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to reach the conclusions of their most difficult demonstrations, had led me to imagine that all things, to the knowledge of which man is competent, are mutually connected in the same way, and that there is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it, provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true, and always preserve in our thoughts the order necessary for the deduction of one truth from another.

.And because I observed, besides, that an inquiry of this kind was of all others of the greatest moment, and one in which precipitancy and anticipation in judgment were most to be dreaded, I thought that I ought not to approach it till I had reached a more mature age (being at that time but twenty-three), and had first of all employed much of my time in preparation for the work, as well by eradicating from my mind all the erroneous opinions I had up to that moment accepted, as by amassing variety of experience to afford materials for my reasonings, and by continually exercising myself in my chosen method with a view to increased skill in its application.