(BrE also rationalise) verb
1 to find or try to find a logical reason to explain why sb thinks, behaves, etc. in a way that is difficult to understand:
[VN] an attempt to rationalize his violent behaviour [also V]
2 (BrE) to make changes to a business, system, etc. in order to make it more efficient, especially by spending less money:
[VN] Twenty workers lost their jobs when the department was rationalized. [also V]
rationalization, rationalisation noun [U,C]:
No amount of rationalization could justify his actions. * a need for rationalization of the industry
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of rationalize come from?
This entry for rationalize is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does rationalize appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — rationalize appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.