Definition of rationalization in English:

rationalization

Translate rationalization into Spanish

noun

(also British rationalisation)

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’
- ‘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’
- ‘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’
  ‘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.’
- ‘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.’