rationalization

• rationalisation

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌræʃ(ə)n(ə)laɪˈzeɪʃn̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌræʃənəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/

rationalization (countable and uncountable, plural rationalizations) (American and Oxford British spelling)

1. (now rare) The process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.

   Coordinate term: casuistry

   Some rationalization of the language of his lectures is, of course, necessary.

2. A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.

   Synonyms: rationale, reasoning

   Her self-flagellating rationalization for the theft was mostly ignored by the jury.

   • 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.

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

   It began with the familiar political motives of civil service rationalization and downsizing.

   • 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."

   • 1980 December 10, “Steel industry changes sought”, in The Times, number 60798, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

     Rationalization includes partnership ventures, and if approved would mean capacity reductions in both sectors with thousands of steelworkers' jobs affected.

   • 2005 April 16, “On This Day: April 16, 1929”, in The Times, number 68363, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81:

     He firmly believed that the only cure for unemployment was the revival of industry as a whole, and that private finance was the best spur and guide to rationalization. But the State would help.

4. (psychiatry) The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
5. (mathematics) The simplification of an expression without changing its value.

   Here, the rationalization of the denominator was unnecessary.

• backward rationalization
• rationalization hamster