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purpose meaning

EN[ˈpɝpəs] [ˈpɜːpəs] [-ɜː(ɹ)pəs]
US

    Definition of purpose in English Dictionary

  • NounPLpurposesSUF-ose
    1. An object to be reached; a target; an aim; a goal.
      1. In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
    2. A result that is desired; an intention.
      1. The act of intending to do something; resolution; determination.
        1. The subject of discourse; the point at issue.
          1. The reason for which something is done, or the reason it is done in a particular way.
            1. The purpose of turning off the lights overnight is to save energy.
          2. (obsolete) Instance; example.
          3. VerbSGpurposesPRpurposingPT, PPpurposed
            1. (transitive) Have set as one's purpose; resolve to accomplish; intend; plan.
              1. (transitive) (passive) Designed for some purpose.
                1. (obsolete, intransitive) To have a purpose or intention; to discourse.
                2. More Examples
                  1. Used in the Middle of Sentence
                    • The 11 girls [ … ] are all trained dancers in real life who, for the purposes of "Billy Elliot," must untrain themselves for each performance and dance with two very left feet.
                    • The purpose of the tramper is to pack the lint into the press box under the restraining dogs near the top end of the press box.
                    • As in Emily Dickinson there is too a fastidious precision of thought where unrhymes fill the purpose better than rhymes
                  2. Used in the Ending of Sentence
                    • The underspecification of the project led to the development of software that was not fit for purpose.
                    • ...and no man ever knew him intimately who did not recognize and admire his great abilities, both natural and acquired, his large-heartedness and sincerity of purpose.
                    • This is the first time a multitransitional study of spectrally resolved rotational ammonia lines has been used for this purpose.
                • Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
                  1. Nouns
                    • Countable nouns
                    • Verbs
                      • Intransitive verbs
                        • Transitive verbs
                      Related Links:
                      1. en purposes
                      2. en purposely
                      3. en purposed
                      4. en purposeless
                      5. en purposeful
                      Source: Wiktionary

                      Meaning of purpose for the defined word.

                      Grammatically, this word "purpose" is a noun, more specifically, a countable noun. It's also a verb, more specifically, an intransitive verb and a transitive verb.
                      Difficultness: Level 1
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                      Easy     ➨     Difficult
                      Definiteness: Level 9
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                      Definite    ➨     Versatile