Source and Reason

noun

• The place where something begins, where it springs into being.
  • usage: "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root"
  • synonyms: beginning, origin, root, rootage
• A document (or organization) from which information is obtained.
  • usage: "the reporter had two sources for the story"
• Anything that provides inspiration for later work.
  • synonyms: seed, germ
• A facility where something is available.
• A person who supplies information.
  • synonyms: informant
• Someone who originates or causes or initiates something.
  • usage: "he was the generator of several complaints"
  • synonyms: generator, author
• Technology) a process by which energy or a substance enters a system. (
  • usage: "a heat source"; "a source of carbon dioxide"
• Anything (a person or animal or plant or substance) in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies.
  • usage: "an infectious agent depends on a reservoir for its survival"
  • synonyms: reservoir
• A publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to.
  • usage: "he carried an armful of references back to his desk"; "he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation"
  • synonyms: reference

verb

• Get (a product) from another country or business.
  • usage: "She sourced a supply of carpet"; "They are sourcing from smaller companies"
• Specify the origin of.
  • usage: "The writer carefully sourced her report"

• (n.) The act of rising; a rise; an ascent.
• (n.) The rising from the ground or beginning, of a stream of water or the like; a spring; a fountain.
• (n.) That from which anything comes forth, regarded as its cause or origin; the person from whom anything originates; first cause.

(DoD) A person, thing, or activity from which information is obtained.
(DoD) In clandestine activities, a person (agent), normally a foreign national, in the employ of an intelligence activity for intelligence purposes.
(DoD) In interrogation activities, any person who furnishes information, either with or without the knowledge that the information is being used for intelligence purposes. In this context, a controlled source is in the employment or under the control of the intelligence activity and knows that the information is to be used for intelligence purposes. An uncontrolled source is a voluntary contributor of information and may or may not know that the information is to be used for intelligence purposes. See also agent; collection agency.

noun

• A rational motive for a belief or action.
  • usage: "the reason that war was declared"; "the grounds for their declaration"
  • synonyms: ground
• An explanation of the cause of some phenomenon.
  • usage: "the reason a steady state was never reached was that the back pressure built up too slowly"
• The capacity for rational thought or inference or discrimination.
  • usage: "we are told that man is endowed with reason and capable of distinguishing good from evil"
  • synonyms: understanding, intellect
• The state of having good sense and sound judgment.
  • usage: "his rationality may have been impaired"; "he had to rely less on reason than on rousing their emotions"
  • synonyms: rationality, reasonableness
• A justification for something existing or happening.
  • usage: "he had no cause to complain"; "they had good reason to rejoice"
  • synonyms: cause, grounds
• A fact that logically justifies some premise or conclusion.
  • usage: "there is reason to believe he is lying"

verb

• Decide by reasoning; draw or come to a conclusion.
  • usage: "We reasoned that it was cheaper to rent than to buy a house"
  • synonyms: reason out, conclude
• Present reasons and arguments.
  • synonyms: argue
• Think logically.
  • usage: "The children must learn to reason"

• (v.t.) To find by logical processes; to explain or justify by reason or argument; -- usually with out; as, to reason out the causes of the librations of the moon.
• (v.t.) To overcome or conquer by adducing reasons; -- with down; as, to reason down a passion.
• (n.) Ratio; proportion.
• (n.) To converse; to compare opinions.
• (n.) A thought or a consideration offered in support of a determination or an opinion; a just ground for a conclusion or an action; that which is offered or accepted as an explanation; the efficient cause of an occurrence or a phenomenon; a motive for an action or a determination; proof, more or less decisive, for an opinion or a conclusion; principle; efficient cause; final cause; ground of argument.
• (n.) Due exercise of the reasoning faculty; accordance with or that which is accordant with and ratified by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judgment; clear and fair deductions from true principles; that which is dictated or supported by the common sense of mankind; right conduct; right; propriety; justice.
• (v.t.) To persuade by reasoning or argument; as, to reason one into a belief; to reason one out of his plan.
• (n.) The faculty or capacity of the human mind by which it is distinguished from the intelligence of the inferior animals; the higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the discursive or ratiocinative faculty.
• (n.) 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.
• (n.) 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.
• (v.t.) To support with reasons, as a request.
• (v.t.) To arrange and present the reasons for or against; to examine or discuss by arguments; to debate or discuss; as, I reasoned the matter with my friend.