rationalize
verbUS /ˈɹæʃənəlaɪz/
Etymology From French rationaliser. By surface analysis, rational + -ize.
- Vested interest, united ties, / landed gentry, rationalize. / Look who bought the myth. / By jingo, buy America.1987, “Exhuming McCarthy”, in Document (R.E.M. No. 5), performed by R.E.M.:
3
Mathematics, Sciences British, English, Oxford, US To remove radicals, without changing the value of an expression or the roots of an equation.
4
British, English, Oxford, US To structure something along modern, efficient and systematic lines, or according to scientific principles. This often includes eliminating duplication and grouping like or similar items.
- At our October meeting, Membership Director George Kaufer suggested rationalizing schedules on the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton trains. He had prepared peak-hour schedules with a focus on ensuring that trains to Hoboken alternate more equally with those to New York, rather than having a number of trains to one destination together before a train to the other city.2024 11, Sally Jane Gellert, “Report from the Chair”, in Lackawanna Coalition Railgram:
- Derived terms
- backward rationalize, overrationalize, rationalizability, rationalizable, rationalization, rationalisation, rationalizer, rerationalize
- Hyponyms
- euhemerize