Other forms: rations
A ration is a fixed allowance of food or fuel in short supply. A weekly ration, cut the ration, ration book.
It is the allowance itself rather than the system, which is rationing. The word is a doublet of ratio and of reason, all from the Latin for reckoning, since a ration is what calculation says each person may have.
1nounrationA fixed allowance of food or fuel in short supply.
“During the war, each family received a weekly ration of butter and sugar.”
ration is an allowance.
French ration comes from Latin ratio, a reckoning. Ratio and reason are its doublets.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er-
French
ration
English, today
ration
From French ration. a doublet of reason and ratio.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA