rationalization
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌræʃ(ə)n(ə)laɪˈzeɪʃn̩/
ipa: /ˌræʃənəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/
Forms: form: rationalizations
form: rationalisation
Etymology: First attested in 1831. From French rationalisation, equivalent to rational + -ization or rationalize + -ation.
Senses: examples: text: Some rationalization of the language of his lectures is, of course, necessary.
coordinate_terms: casuistry
glosses: The process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.
examples: text: Her self-flagellating rationalization for the theft was mostly ignored by the jury.
text: But, he insisted, he was neither a “Union Saver” nor a “freedom shrieker.” He rejected all high-flown rationalizations for the war effort — “to hell with the devilish twaddle about freedom.”
ref: 2014 October 17, Daniel W. Crofts, “What Union Soldiers Thought About the Civil War”, in The New York Times:
text: After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died.
ref: 2024 September 16, Gabrielle Giffords, “Gabby Giffords: It’s the Guns. It’s Always the Guns.”, in The New York Times:
synonyms: rationale
reasoning
glosses: A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.
examples: text: It began with the familiar political motives of civil service rationalization and downsizing.
text: For socialism involves the reconstruction of industry upon the principle of production for use. It involves the rationalization of industry, the proper adjustment of production to the social requirements.
ref: 1915 May 24, John Spargo, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, volume 59, page 160:
text: The former, technical rationalisation, is a question of improvements carried out within businesses by the managers, methods like scientific management, the rapidity with which machinery is scrapped, the supervision of labour, by the stop-watch method or any other method, and generally what we economists have been in the habit of calling "internal economies."
ref: 1930 September 24, Ian MacGregor, “Problems of Rationalisation”, in The Economic Journal, volume 40, number 159, page 351:
text: Rationalization includes partnership ventures, and if approved would mean capacity reductions in both sectors with thousands of steelworkers' jobs affected.
ref: 1980 December 10, “Steel industry changes sought”, in The Times, number 60798, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:
text: He firmly believed that the only cure for unemployment was the revival of industry as a whole, and that private finance was the best spur and guide to rationalization. But the State would help.
ref: 2005 April 16, “On This Day: April 16, 1929”, in The Times, number 68363, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81:
topics: economics
sciences
synonyms: consolidation
glosses: The reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of resources and changes in its workforce.
topics: human-sciences
medicine
psychiatry
psychology
sciences
glosses: The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
examples: text: Here, the rationalization of the denominator was unnecessary.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: The simplification of an expression without changing its value.
Derived terms: backward rationalization
rationalization hamster