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UK [ˈpɜː(r)pəs] / US [ˈpɜrpəs] noun
Word forms "purpose":
singular purpose plural purposes

1) [countable] the aim that someone wants to achieve, or that something is intended to achieve

I use my boat mainly for leisure purposes.

purpose of:

The purpose of this dictionary is to help students of English.

the purpose of doing something:

The President's trip will have the purpose of negotiating a peace deal.

for the purpose of doing something:

He went there for the purpose of making business contacts.

someone's purpose in doing something:

Her sole purpose in being here was to kill some time.

suit someone's purpose:

You must decide which method suits your purpose best.

serve a purpose (= achieve an aim):

Another meeting would serve absolutely no purpose.

defeat the purpose of something (= make it impossible to achieve the aim that you want to achieve):

Exercising for too long defeats the purpose of doing exercise in the first place.

2) [uncountable] an aim or meaning in your life because there is something that you want to achieve

Now his life lacks purpose.

a sense of purpose:

The course gave her a new sense of purpose.

•

for no purpose/for no good purpose — for no reason/for no good reason

It would upset them both to no purpose.

for the purpose(s) of something — when considering one particular thing

For the purposes of this study, we ignored the responses of those with fewer than three children.

to little/no purpose — formal without success, or with bad results

She called after them to no purpose.

- on purpose

See:

all-purpose, cross purposes, intent I, practical I