Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Rationalize |
RationalizeVerb1. Defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning; "rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of success". 2. Weed out unwanted or unnecessary things; "We had to lose weight, so we cut the sugar from our diet". 3. Structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results; "We rationalized the factory's production and raised profits". 4. Think rationally; employ reason; "When one wonders why one is doing certain things, one should rationalize". 5. Remove irrational qualities from, as in math; "This function can be rationalized". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "rationalize" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1842. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Business | To attribute (one's actions) to rational and creditable motives without adequate analysis of the true and esp. unconscious motives. Source: European Union. (references) |
Health | To attribute one's actions to rational and creditable motives without adequate analysis of the true and unconscious motives. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: RationalizeSynonyms: apologise (v), apologize (v), cut (v), excuse (v), justify (v), prune (v), rationalise (v). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And that's how simple it is. That's how you that's how you rationalize making the choice between the mission and the man. (Saving Private Ryan; writing credit: Robert Rodat) Don't rationalize this into some noble act. We both know the truth of it. You like men who hurt you. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Stop trying to rationalize everything, will ya? Let's face it, we have a mystery on our hands! (Invasion of the Body Snatchers; writing credit: Jack Finney; Daniel Mainwaring) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | In recent years there have been a number of mergers and acquisitions in the Swedish chemical industry in order to rationalize production, optimize research and development and to facilitate international marketing. (references) | |
These measures are expected to introduce new operations and funding mechanisms for medical institutions, break up monopolies and install a competition mechanism among and within hospitals, sever economic ties between hospitals and pharmaceutical sales companies, rationalize prices for medical services and further advance pharmaceutical and healthcare reform. (references) | ||
On December 13, 1999, bids were submitted to Deutsche Bank by potential foreign investors in KAI. Reportedly, a total of ten companies submitted bids to be the foreign direct investor (FDI) partner of KAI. A shortlist was announced in January 2000, and the finalists were the Lockheed Martin/Aerospatiale/DASA team, and the Boeing/BAE Systems team. The Boeing/BAE team was selected as the preferred candidate and is currently negotiating with KAI. KAI has the potential for long-term success if it can develop a significant and steady commercial base and rationalize production facilities and its number of employees. (references) | ||
Economic History | Switzerland | Retail traders continue to rationalize their operations in order to counteract the effects of the ongoing, stiff competition. (references) |
Ghana | To rationalize, the National Liberation Council abandoned unprofitable projects, and some inefficient state-owned enterprises were sold to private investors. (references) | |
Portugal | The new Portuguese capital markets code (the CVM) came into effect on March 1, 2000. According to one legal group here, the CVM has gone a long way to rationalize and streamline Portuguese capital markets legislation. (references) | |
Political Economy | THAILAND | A member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), Thailand has yet to complete efforts to rationalize a complicated tariff regime that has 44 rates. (references) |
Trade | Mauritius | Over the years, the government has undertaken a number of customs tariff reform measures to rationalize the tariff structure. (references) |
Germany | Germany's recent tax reform, however, eliminated the capital gains tax on holdings sold by one corporation to another as of January 2002. This change is considered especially important to promote industrial restructuring, unwind Germany's complex web of interlocking corporate ownership, and rationalize capital allocation. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Rationalize" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 85.57% of the time. "Rationalize" is used about 97 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 85.57% | 83 | 36,350 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 14.43% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Total | 100.00% | 97 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
denominator rationalize | 6 |
rationalize | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "rationalize"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | racionalizoj, kthej në madjësi racionale, arsyetoj (descant, dissert, dissertate, expostulate, justify, motivate, ratiocinate, reason, recognize, reflect, speculate). (various references) | |
Arabic | منطق (logic, reason, reasoning), وجد تفسير منطقي, سوغ (justify, reason, warrant), عقلن, رشد (be on the right way, discretion, maturity, rationality, reason, ripening), بحث عن مبرر, برر (excuse, justify, sanctify, substantiate, vindicate, warrant). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | рационализирам, разсъждавам разумно, осмислям, модернизирам (modernize, retool, update), правя смислен, давам рационално обяснение на. (various references) | |
Chinese | 合理化 (rationalisation, rationalise, rationalization). (various references) | |
Czech | racionalizovat (streamline), zhospodárnit, logicky vysvìtlit. (various references) | |
Farsi | منطقی کردن , بااستدلال عقلی توجیه یاتفسیرکردن . (various references) | |
Finnish | rationalisoida (improve efficiency), järkeistää. (various references) | |
French | rationaliser. (various references) | |
German | rationalisieren (streamline, to rationalize). (various references) | |
Greek | αιτιολογώ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ליעל (lick into shape, make efficient), לבסס על "'יון. (various references) | |
Hungarian | racionalizál (to rationalize), ésszerûsít. (various references) | |
Italian | razionalizzare (pragmatize, rationalise). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 合理化 (rationalization). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | "うりか (rationalization). (various references) | |
Manx | resoonaghey (argue, rationalisation, reason, reasoning), co-rheynn (participate, pool, quotient, ration, subscription). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ationalizeray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | racionalizar, tornar racional. (various references) | |
Romanian | raţionaliza (ration), explica în mod ştiinţific. (various references) | |
Russian | рационализировать (make efficient, rationalizing). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | racionalizovati. (various references) | |
Spanish | racionalizar. (various references) | |
Swedish | rationalisera (rationaiize). (various references) | |
Turkish | rasyonelleştirmek (pragmatize), rasyonel sayıya çevirmek, teşkilatlandırmak, akla uygun hale getirmek, akılcı olmak, örgütlemek (organize). (various references) | |
Ukranian | раціоналізувати (naturalize), логічно обгрунтовувати, пояснювати (account, account for, analogize, attribute, authorize, clear, comment, construe, elucidate, explain, illustrate, show, translate). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "rationalize": rationalized, rationalizer, rationalizers, rationalizes. (additional references) | |
| |
"Rationalize" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: rationalise, rationalisme. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "rationalize" (pronounced ra"shunulī'z) |
| 8 | -a" sh u n u l ī' z | denationalize, internationalize, nationalize, renationalize. |
| 7 | -sh u n u l ī' z | deinstitutionalize, fictionalize, professionalize. |
| 6 | -u n u l ī' z | criminalize, depersonalize, marginalize, personalize, regionalize. |
| 5 | -n u l ī' z | analyze, finalize, internalize, penalize. |
| 4 | -u l ī' z | actualize, alkalies, annualize, brutalize, cannibalize, capitalize, caramelize, catalyze, centralize, civilize, collateralize, commercialize, compartmentalize, crystallize, decentralize, demobilize, demoralize, departmentalize, destabilize, editorialize, equalize, evangelize, federalize, fertilize, formalize, fossilize, generalize, globalize, hospitalize, hydrolyze, idolize, industrialize, legalize, liberalize, localize, materialize, memorialize, metabolize, mineralize, mobilize, monopolize, moralize, naturalize, neutralize, normalize, paralyze, radicalize, recapitalize, revitalize, scandalize, serialize, socialize, specialize, stabilize, sterilize, symbolize, tantalize, tranquilize, trivialize, underutilize, utilize, vandalize, verbalize, visualize. |
| 3 | -l ī' z | butterflies, creolize, fireflies, gadflies, idealize, multiplies, realize, stylize. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: realization. | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-i-i-l-n-o-r-t-z" | |
-2 letters: alienator, rationale. | |
-3 letters: aeration, alizarin, atrazine, inertial, latinize, lionizer, notarial, notarize, oriental, rational, relation, triazine, triazole. | |
-4 letters: aeolian, aileron, airline, alation, alienor, antiair, elation, inertia, ionizer, ironize, latrine, lazaret, lintier, lionize, nitrile, ratline, reliant, retinal, retinol, toenail, trenail, triazin, tzarina, zoarial. | |
-5 letters: aerial, aliner, antiar, antler, antral, aortae, aortal, areola, aroint, atonal, atoner, atrial, azonal, entail, entoil, eolian, etalon, inlier, iolite, ionize, lanate, lariat, larine, latino, latria, lazier, learnt, linear, linier, linter, loaner, loiter, nailer, narial, neroli, nitril, norite, oilier, orient, ornate, ratine, ration, ratlin, realia, reloan, renail, rental, retail, retain, retial, retina, rialto, taenia, tailer, tailor, talion, tarnal, tarzan, tenail, tineal, tinier, toiler, tolane, tonier, trinal, zanier, zealot, zeatin, zoaria, zonate. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-e-i-i-l-n-o-r-t-z" | |
+1 letter: laterization, nationalizer, rationalized, rationalizer, rationalizes, realizations, velarization. | |
+2 letters: cartelization, derealization, fractionalize, laterizations, linearization, nationalizers, rationalizers, renationalize, serialization, velarizations, verbalization, vernalization. | |
+3 letters: aerosolization, allegorization, cartelizations, centralization, demoralization, depolarization, derealizations, federalization, fractionalized, fractionalizes, generalization, lateralization, liberalization, linearizations, literalization, mineralization, neutralization, proletarianize, rationalizable, recanalization, regularization, renationalized, renationalizes, repolarization, revalorization, revitalization, secularization, serializations, thermalization, traditionalize, verbalizations, vernalizations. | |
+4 letters: aerosolizations, allegorizations, centralizations, collateralizing, deglamorization, demoralizations, depolarizations, desacralization, detribalization, etherealization, externalization, federalizations, generalizations, internalization, lateralizations, liberalizations, literalizations, materialization, melodramatizing, mineralizations, neutralizations, personalization, proletarianized, proletarianizes, recanalizations, regionalization, regularizations, renationalizing, renormalization, repolarizations, resocialization, revalorizations, revisualization, revitalizations, secularizations, thermalizations, totalitarianize, traditionalized, traditionalizes. | |
+5 letters: decentralization, deglamorizations, demilitarization, demineralization, denaturalization, denuclearization, desacralizations, detribalizations, editorialization, etherealizations, externalizations, internalizations, internationalize, materializations, overcapitalizing, personalizations, proletarianizing, recapitalization, recentralization, regionalizations, remilitarization, renormalizations, reorganizational, resocializations, revisualizations, totalitarianized, totalitarianizes, universalization. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)52 61 74 69 6F 6E 61 6C 69 7A 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-. .- - .. --- -. .- .-.. .. --.. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 01101001 01111010 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)R a t i o n a l i z e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0052 0061 0074 0069 006F 006E 0061 006C 0069 007A 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5267867581806778759271 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Rhymes 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
