intention

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Purpose

Nouns

1. intention, intent, intentionality; purpose; project, plan, undertaking; predetermination; design, ambition; contemplation, mind, animus, view, purview, proposal; lookout; decision, determination, resolve, resolution; set or settled purpose, wish, desire, motive. See will, meaning.

2. final cause, raison d'être, end in itself; object, aim, end; drift, tenor, tendency; goal, target, prey, quarry, game; destination, mark. See pursuit.

Verbs — intend, purpose, design, mean; have to; propose to oneself, harbor a design; have in view or mind; have an eye to; labor for; be after, aspire after, endeavor; aim or drive at; take aim, set before oneself; study to; hitch one's wagon to a star; take upon oneself, undertake, take into one's head; meditate, contemplate; think, dream, or talk of; premeditate; compass, calculate; plan or figure on, destine, propose, predetermine; project, plan, have a mind to (see willingness); desire, pursue.

Adjectives — intended, intentional, advised, studied, express, determinate, prepense, bound for; intending, minded; bent upon, earnest, resolute; at stake; on the fire, in view, in prospect.

Adverbs — intentionally, etc.; advisedly, wittingly, knowingly, designedly, purposely, on purpose, by design, studiously, pointedly; with intent; deliberately, with premeditation; with one's eyes open, in cold blood; to all intents and purposes; with a view or eye to; by way of, so as to, in order to or that, to the end that, with the intent that; for the purpose of, with the view of, in contemplation of, on account of; in pursuance of, pursuant to.

Quotations — The will to do, the soul to dare (Sir Walter Scott), The road to Hell is paved with good intentions (Karl Marx), The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding (Albert Camus).

Antonyms, see chance.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. aim, end, plan; see purpose 1 .

See Synonym Study at purpose .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

purpose, intent, goal, aim, design, plan, object, end, target.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun What one intends to do or achieve: aim, ambition, design, end, goal, intent, mark, meaning, object, objective, point, purpose, target, view, why. Idioms: end in view, why and wherefore. See PLANNED, PURPOSE.