raison d'etre
Noun
Meaning
the purpose that justifies a thing's existence
reason for being
Source: WordNetHypernyms
Examples
A wiki, however, is very live (and indeed, liveness, is its raison d'etre).
Freire then offered an alternative stance and wrote, "The raison d'etre of libertarian education, on the other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation.
Every twist, every complication, has a raison d'etre, which gets really scary when social misfit Bert Slezak starts spouting conspiracy theories tightly connected with reality.
He interacts easily and responsibly with issues of culture, modernity and post-modernity, biblical authority, historical tradition and the missional emphasis that should be the raison d'etre of all theology.
In sum, blogs have our own raison d'etre, and readers have our own raison, um, de lire, shall we say, and I respect Mr. Wells' right to like the blogs he likes.
The Muslims fear that the Jewish people's return to their land, cities and the site of their Temples will grant Judaism the status of a vibrant, active and true religion, posing a theological threat to the very existence and raison d'etre of Islam.