He tried to rationalize his foolish actions.
Source: tatoeba (298610)
Rationalize
//ˈɹæʃənəlaɪz//
Synonyms for "rationalize" (130 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (26)
Strong matches (39)
Related words (65)
justifylay planslogicalizelogicizemake a projectionmake arrangementsmake clearmake plainmethodizemisapplynormalizeorganizeparalogizepervertphilosophizeplanplan aheadpopularizeprearrangeprogram
Show 43 more words
projectprovide a rationalepurgereasonreason illreason outregularizeregulaterehabilitatereinstaterestoreroutinizescheduleschematizeset upsettleshapeshed light uponshowshow howshow the waysimplifysolvespell outstandardizesyllogizesynchronizesynthesizesystematizetheorizethinkthink throughthrow light upontunetune upunfoldunlockunraveluse reasonvindicatewarrantwork outwork up
Verb(2 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
15 entriesMore specific
1 entriesSynonyms
2 entriesderived
8 entriesderived from
1 entrieshas context
1 entriesmanner of
3 entriesrelated to
16 entriesTranslations
27 translations across 11 languages.
Albanian
1 entries- arësyetoj verb (to make something rational)
Catalan
2 entries- racionalitzar verb (to make something rational)
- racionalitzar verb (math: to remove radicals)
Finnish
4 entries- järkeistää verb (to structure along systematic lines)
- järkevöittää verb (to make something rational)
- järkiperäistää verb (to make something rational)
- rationaalistaa verb (to justify negative behaviour)
French
2 entries- rationaliser verb (to make something rational)
- rationaliser verb (to justify negative behaviour)
German
4 entries- rationalisieren verb (to make something rational)
- rationalisieren (psych.) verb (to justify negative behaviour)
- rechtfertigen verb (to justify negative behaviour)
- schönreden verb (to justify negative behaviour)
Hungarian
3 entries- megideologizál verb (to justify negative behaviour)
- racionalizál verb (to make something rational)
- észszerűsít verb (to make something rational)
Portuguese
1 entries- racionalizar verb (math: to remove radicals)
Russian
1 entries- рационализи́ровать verb (to make something rational)
Slovak
1 entries- racionalizovať verb (to justify negative behaviour)
Spanish
3 entries- racionalizar verb (to make something rational)
- racionalizar verb (math: to remove radicals)
- racionalizar verb (to structure along systematic lines)
Tagalog
1 entries- isamatwid verb (to make something rational)
Sample sentences
12 total sentences available.
Globalization has gone mad: why transport Spanish cucumbers to exterminate the Northern Germans when half of them live in Mallorca? We need to rationalize all of that and adopt a more solid method of bacterial decontamination.
Source: tatoeba (932494)
Sociopaths rationalize the pain they inflict on others.
Source: tatoeba (9775027)
Sociopaths never feel remorse and they rationalize the pain they inflict on others.
Source: tatoeba (9775028)
Showing 4 of 12 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.