Rationalise

//ˈɹæʃ.ə.nə.laɪz// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of rationalize. UK, alt-of, nonstandard

    "The eastern bore became disused in 1972-73, when its rails were lifted as part of a British Rail scheme to rationalise trackwork in and around King's Cross."

  2. 2
    weed out unwanted or unnecessary things wordnet
  3. 3
    remove irrational quantities from wordnet
  4. 4
    think rationally; employ logic or reason wordnet
  5. 5
    defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning wordnet
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  1. 6
    structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
apologiseapologizeapologizecutcutexcuse

Example

More examples

"The eastern bore became disused in 1972-73, when its rails were lifted as part of a British Rail scheme to rationalise trackwork in and around King's Cross."

Etymology

From French rationaliser. By surface analysis, rational + -ise.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.