noun

• 1The action of attempting to explain or justify behavior or an attitude with logical reasons, even if these are not appropriate.

  ‘most people are prone to self-deceptive rationalization’

  More example sentences

  • ‘they justify themselves with ingenious rationalizations’
  • ‘No rationalization that human beings give for their cruelty or neglect is ever meaningful to him.’
  • ‘My preferred rationalisation for this is that the films are too long for me to concentrate all the way through.’
  • ‘Let's talk about some of the rationalizations for war.’
  • ‘All kinds of rationalizations for my failure come to mind, apparently designed to protect my ego.’
  • ‘Our minds are ingenious in concocting self-serving rationalizations.’
  • ‘The convenient rationalization that our weapons potpourri will confuse the enemy into fear of misbehaving is absurd and threatening.’
  • ‘Usually this took the form of a posthoc rationalization or intellectualisation of creative work that was made on the basis of intuition.’
  • ‘They'll bounce right back with excuses, rationalizations, and inane explanations of powers that weren't there in the first place.’
  • ‘I disagree with their rationalization.’
  • ‘You strip away the denial, the rationalization, and you come to the truth.’
  • ‘But many in the church stress that this leads people down the wrong path, because it encourages the rationalization that if it feels good, it must be okay.’

• 2British The action of making a company, process, or industry more efficient, especially by dispensing with superfluous personnel or equipment.

  ‘the London dockers struggle to preserve their jobs against ruthless rationalization’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The company had to go into a major rationalization program of its manufacturing facilities and product portfolio.’
  • ‘Under economic rationalization women are the first to lose their official jobs.’
  • ‘Globalisation and economic rationalisation driven by multinational companies is seen by workers as the most serious threat to their standard of living.’
  • ‘Only rationalisation of the public sector offers any prospect of a decent settlement for them.’
  • ‘The government ordered a drastic rationalisation of the industry.’
  • ‘The next step very well could be the rationalization of the product line.’
  • ‘Up until then, the company's growth primarily focused on the ongoing rationalization of manufacturing operations.’
  • ‘The logic would be the potential for an amalgamation and rationalisation of costs regardless of whether the two papers were formally merged.’
  • ‘A comprehensive policy of rationalization of the bureaucracy would take time.’
  • ‘The over-capacity in question was removed in a major school rationalisation process two years ago.’
  • ‘The company aeroplane was sold, all of the company purchases were vetted, and major rationalisation was to follow.’
  • ‘The firm was going through "a process of rationalisation", he said.’

  1. 2.1The action of reorganizing a process or system so as to make it more logical and consistent.
     ‘the rationalization of accounting standards’
     More example sentences

     • ‘This has tied in well with the rationalisation of the booking process.’
     • ‘The rationalisation of these practices was always the same.’
     • ‘This is nothing more than a rationalization of current social structures, all of which systematically oppress the interests of women, minorities and the poor.’
     • ‘I have achieved significant rationalization of tax structures relating to both excise and customs duties.’
     • ‘The rationalisation of the fee structure for medical, dental and nursing courses was a welcome step.’
     • ‘Global consolidation and the demand for moving data are forcing a rationalization of U.S. networks.’
     • ‘This scheme should allow for rationalisation and more efficient operation of the fleet.’
     • ‘A major rationalisation is taking place on the storage front.’
     • ‘He started the process of simplification and rationalisation of the tax system.’
     • ‘This simplification and rationalisation was long overdue.’

• 3Mathematics
  The process of converting a function or expression to a rational form.

  ‘By using the conjugate, I can do the necessary rationalization.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In complex number algebra, rationalization is the equivalent of the simplification of fractions in ordinary algebra.’
  • ‘Thus V3 x v3 = 3, so multiplication by v3 is rationalization of V3.’
  • ‘The need for rationalization arises when there are irrational numbers, surds or roots or complex numbers in the denominator of a fraction.’
  • ‘Write the simplest rationalization factor of the following surds.’