rationalise

Verb

Meaning

defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning

weed out unwanted or unnecessary things

remove irrational quantities from

think rationally; employ logic or reason

structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results

Source: WordNet

Synonyms

prune excuse apologize rationalize apologise reason cut develop think improve contract explain alter concentrate justify
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Antonyms

allow damage break stop block kill
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Hypernyms

support change think defend eliminate organize

Hyponyms

color colour mitigate plead gloss palliate

Anagrams

realisation

Examples

It is characteristic of the British Public to look askance at any deliberate, systematic attempt to rationalise our institutions. Stanley Baldwin

Our reason for withdrawal is simple. We are party to too many regional trading organisations. The sum effect of this means that our membership is extremely costly to sustain and we must rationalise our participation in such ventures. Benjamin Mkapa

[...] antisemitism is an irrational thing. The Jews are accused of specific offences (for instance, bad behaviour in food queues) which the person speaking feels strongly about, but it is obvious that these accusations merely rationalise some deep-rooted prejudice. George Orwell

It is hard to rationalise or explain why you love what you love. But I have always been interested in science and maths, and in high school I was struck that you could use maths to understand nature and science. Serge Haroche

Being a Barrymore didn't help me, other than giving me a great sense of pride and a strange spiritual sense that I felt OK about having the passion to act. It made sense because my whole family had done it and it helped rationalise it for me. Drew Barrymore

rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior Source: Internet

Close letter words and terms

rationalisable rationalisation rationalisation hamster rationalise away rationalised rationaliser