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rationalization

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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First attested in 1831. From French rationalisation, equivalent to rational +‎ -ization or rationalize +‎ -ation.

Noun

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rationalization (countable and uncountable, plural rationalizations)

  1. The process or result of rationalizing.
    Coordinate term: casuistry
    • 2014 October 17, Daniel W. Crofts, “What Union Soldiers Thought About the Civil War”, in The New York Times[1]:
      But, he insisted, he was neither a “Union Saver” nor a “freedom shrieker.” He rejected all high-flown rationalizations for the war effort — “to hell with the devilish twaddle about freedom.”
    • 2024 September 16, Gabrielle Giffords, “Gabby Giffords: It’s the Guns. It’s Always the Guns.”, in The New York Times[2]:
      After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died.
  2. A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.
    Synonyms: rationale, reasoning
  3. (economics) The reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of resources and changes in its workforce.
    Synonym: consolidation
    • 1915 May, John Spargo, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science[3], volume 59, page 160:
      For socialism involves the reconstruction of industry upon the principle of production for use. It involves the rationalization of industry, the proper adjustment of production to the social requirements.
    • 1930 September, Ian MacGregor, “Problems of Rationalisation”, in The Economic Journal[4], volume 40, number 159, page 351:
      The former, technical rationalisation, is a question of improvements carried out within businesses by the managers, methods like scientific management, the rapidity with which machinery is scrapped, the supervision of labour, by the stop-watch method or any other method, and generally what we economists have been in the habit of calling "internal economies."
  4. (psychiatry) The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
  5. (mathematics) The simplification of an expression without changing its value.

Derived terms

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Translations

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