speculate implies reasoning about things theoretical or problematic.
speculated on the fate of the lost explorers
deliberate suggests slow or careful reasoning before forming an opinion or reaching a conclusion or decision.
the jury deliberated for five hours
Example Sentences
Noun I gave a reason for my absence. Is there a reason for your strange behavior? There is a reason why they don't want to come. I can't give you the report for the simple reason that it isn't yet finished. She explained her reasons for deciding to change jobs. He wanted to know the reason for their decision. Give me one good reason why I should believe you. For obvious reasons, we can't do that yet. For reasons of space, some of the charts and graphs have been omitted from the article. She resigned for personal reasons. Verb He lost the ability to reason. He reasoned that both statements couldn't be true. She reasoned that something must be wrong. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The railway management had good reason to worry that the Russians would seek its destruction. Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2022 Rivals old and new, real and imagined, have reason to lock arms and swag surf as one. Kevin Scarbinsky | Special To Al.com, al, 8 Sep. 2022 The ride has remained closed since the accident; however, the state's investigation found no evidence that the park acted illegally or had reason to believe the ride was unsafe, according to the Associated Press. Stephanie Wenger, Peoplemag, 7 Sep. 2022 Since that time, State Street has said federal regulators have been scrutinizing the transaction, although the particular agency or agencies involved have not been disclosed, nor has the precise reason. Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2022 To be fair, Richemont did have a valid reason to oppose Bluebell’s board nominee. Carol Ryan, WSJ, 7 Sep. 2022 One person familiar with the Mar-a-Lago search said the goal of the comprehensive list was to ensure recovery of all classified records on the property, and not just those that investigators had reason to believe might be there. Devlin Barrett And Carol D. Leonnig, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Sep. 2022 One person familiar with the Mar-a-Lago search said the goal of the comprehensive list was to ensure recovery of all classified records on the property, and not just those that investigators had reason to believe might be there. Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2022 The family believed Greenburg followed someone there because he has never been invited there and had no reason to know where the grandmother lives. Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 5 Sep. 2022
Verb
Communist Infiltration, resulting in the chronic inability to reason by the general populace.Anchorage Daily News, 5 Aug. 2022 The July payrolls data may give Fed officials reason to continue their aggressive monetary policy approach against a backdrop of decades-high inflation. Olivia Rockeman, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2022 Tourism is a fifth of the Greek economy, and leaders reason that visitors who suffer through hot hotel rooms won’t come back. Elinda Labropoulou, Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2022 And yet reading this paragraph can lead the human mind – even that of a Google engineer – to imagine GPT-3 as an intelligent being that can reason about peanut butter and pineapple dishes. Kyle Mahowald And Anna A. Ivanova, Ars Technica, 27 June 2022 But his book and its cover invite the reader to imagine a public forum in which a red-state pachyderm and a blue-state equine can reason together peaceably and constructively instead of biting and kicking each other. Martha Bayles, WSJ, 24 June 2022 Sonia Membreno has tried to reason with Bernie, her black labradoodle, with little success. Hau Chu, Washington Post, 24 Aug. 2022 Some people reason that a human being’s moral status is not all-or-nothing, but, like human development, a matter of degree. Nancy S. Jecker, The Conversation, 13 May 2022 But Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, believes most people don’t reason with logic alone. Womensmedia, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English resoun, from Anglo-French raisun, from Latin ration-, ratio "reckoning, calculation, explanation," from reri "to calculate, think;" probably akin to Goth rathjo "account, explanation"