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say it: PUR-puhs
purpose is a noun and verb meaning "an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions". It carries 5 recorded senses.
an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions
“his intent was to provide a new translation”
“good intentions are not enough”
“it was created with the conscious aim of answering immediate needs”
“he made no secret of his designs”
what something is used for
“the function of an auger is to bore holes”
“ballet is beautiful but what use is it?”
the quality of being determined to do or achieve something; firmness of purpose
“his determination showed in his every movement”
“he is a man of purpose”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for purpose come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.