Occasion1. (n.) An important event; an occurrence; an incident.
2. (n.) A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance; convenience.
3. (n.) An occurrence or condition of affairs which brings with it some unlooked-for event; that which incidentally brings to pass an event, without being its efficient cause or sufficient reason; accidental or incidental cause.
4. (n.) Need; exigency; requirement; necessity; as, I have no occasion for firearms.
5. (n.) A reason or excuse; a motive; a persuasion.
6. (v. t.) To give occasion to; to cause; to produce; to induce; as, to occasion anxiety.
Thesaurus Entries
a leg up, advantage, adventure, affair, antecedent, antecedents, author, bare necessities, base, basis, bear, beget, break, breed, bring about, bring forth, bring on, bring to effect, bring to pass, call, call for, call forth, call up, causation, cause, cause and effect, celebration, ceremony, chance, circumstance, clear stage, commemoration, conceive, condition, conjuncture, contingency, create, demand, demand for, desideration, desideratum, determinant, determinative, do, effect, effectuate, element, elicit, engender, episode, essential, essentials, establish, etiology, event, eventuality, evoke, excuse, experience, fact, factor, fair field, fair game, father, found, foundation, function, gala, generate, gestate, give birth to, give occasion to, give origin to, give rise to, go, ground, grounds, hap, happening, happenstance, impel, impulse, inaugurate, incident, incitement, indispensable, induce, inducement, institute, juncture, justification, liberty, look-in, make, make for, matter of fact, milestone, moment, must, must item, necessaries, necessities, necessity, need, need for, obligation, observance, occasionally, occurrence, on occasion, opening, opportunism, opportunity, originate, particular, party, phenomenon, place, prerequirement, prerequisite, principle, produce, prompt, prompting, provocation, provoke, reality, realize, reason, requirement, requisite, requisition, right, room, scope, set afloat, set on foot, set up, shot, show, sire, squeak, stepping-stone, stimulus, the necessary, the needful, thing, time, turn of events, want, warrant, work, work up