Other forms: rationalised, rationalising, rationalises
To rationalise is to invent a comfortable reason for what you did. Rationalise the decision, easy to rationalise, rationalise it away.
The reason comes after the act, which is the whole point — people decide and then explain, and the explanation feels like the cause. In business the word means something quite different: to cut and simplify. This is the British spelling; American writing has a z.
1verbrationaliseTo invent a comfortable reason for what you did.
“He rationalised eating the whole cake by saying it would go stale anyway.”
2verbcutTo cut and simplify an organisation.
“The bank plans to rationalise its branches by closing the small offices in villages.”
rationalise is an explaining.
Also accepted in games: rationalize
French rationaliser comes from Latin rationalis, of reason, from ratio, reckoning or reason.
French
rationaliser
English, today
rationalise
From French rationaliser. by surface analysis, rational + -ise.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Thinking & Memory