law An explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature):
— The rationale for capital punishment.

synoniem: principle.

Roget 153: cause, origin, source, principle, element; occasioner^†, prime mover, primum mobile [Lat.]; vera causa [Lat.]; author etc. (producer) 164; mainspring; agent; leaven; groundwork, foundation etc. (support) 215.    spring, fountain, well, font; fountainhead, spring head, wellhead; fons et origo [Lat.], genesis; descent etc. (paternity) 166; remote cause; influence.    pivot, hinge, turning point, lever, crux, fulcrum; key; proximate cause, causa causans [Lat.]; straw that breaks the camel's back.    ground; reason, reason why; why and wherefore, rationale, occasion, derivation; final cause etc. (intention) 620; les dessous des cartes [Fr.]; undercurrents.    rudiment.    egg, germ, embryo, bud, root, radix radical, etymon, nucleus, seed, stem, stock, stirps, trunk, tap-root, gemmule^†, radicle, semen, sperm.    nest, cradle, nursery, womb, nidus, birthplace, hotbed.    causality, causation; origination; production etc. 161.    ... meer laten zien

Roget 155: attribution, theory, etiology, ascription, reference to, rationale; accounting for etc. v.; palaetiology1, imputation, derivation from.    filiation^†, affiliation; pedigree etc. (paternity) 166.    explanation etc. (interpretation) 522; reason why etc. (cause) 153.    ... meer laten zien

Roget 462: answer, response, reply, replication, riposte, rejoinder, surrejoinder^†, rebutter, surrebutter^†, retort, repartee; rescript, rescription^†; antiphon^†, antiphony; acknowledgment; password; echo; counter statement.    discovery etc. 480.1; solution etc. (explanation) 522; rationale etc. (cause) 153; clue etc. (indication) 550.    Oedipus; oracle etc. 513; return etc. (record) 551.    ... meer laten zien

Roget 522: interpretation, definition; explanation, explication; solution, answer; rationale; plain interpretation, simple interpretation, strict interpretation; meaning etc. 516.    translation; rendering, rendition; redition^†; literal translation, free translation; key; secret; clew etc. (indication) 550; clavis^†, crib, pony, trot [U.S.].    exegesis; expounding, exposition; hermeneutics; comment, commentary; inference etc. (deduction) 480; illustration, exemplification; gloss, annotation, scholium^†, note; elucidation, dilucidation^†; eclaircissement [Fr.], mot d'enigme [Fr.].    [methods of interpreting - list] symptomatology [Med.], semiology, semeiology^†, semiotics; metoposcopy^†, physiognomy; paleography etc. (philology) 560; oneirology acception^†, acceptation, acceptance; light, reading, lection, construction, version.    equivalent, equivalent meaning etc. 516; synonym; paraphrase, metaphrase^†; convertible terms, apposition; dictionary etc. 562; polyglot.    ... meer laten zien

Nederlands: motivering, principe, ratio, beginsel