Word.ws English Dictionary

rationale

/ˌɹæʃ.əˈnɑːl/US/ˌɹæʃ.əˈnæl/

rationale noun: an explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.

rationale: an explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something
Image: Piotr Jaworski; Pio M EN DE PL, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

rationale (plural rationales or rationalia)

  1. An explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.
  2. A justification or rationalization for something.
    • He confirmed that Bashir successfully manipulated Diana’s paranoia by showing her brother, Earl Spencer, forged documents that “proved” her closest advisers had betrayed her to the palace, inflaming her desire to speak out for herself. Bashir lied his way to the biggest TV scoop of the 20th...April 5 2022, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair
    Synonyms:
    reasoning

Noun (2)

rationale (plural rationales)

  1. (rare) A liturgical vestment worn by some Christian bishops of various denominations.
    • the local bishop, H.E. Gregor Maria Hanke, is shown wearing that rarest of liturgical garments, the rationale.2015, Gregory Dipippo, Rationale Worn by the Bishop of Eichstätt

rationale meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

rationale in Tamil

அடிப்படைக் கோட்பாடு, உள்ளர்ந்த காரணம், உள்ளார்ந்த காரணம், காரண விளக்கம்

rationale in Marathi

तर्कशुद्धी

rationale in Bengali

যৌক্তিক ভিত্তি, মূল কারণ

rationale in Malayalam

reasoning, reasons, thinking
യുക്തിയുക്തത, ഉപപത്തി, കാരണവിവരണം, മൂലകാരണം, യുക്തിവിചാരം, യുക്തിചിന്ത
More languagesFewer languages
rationale in Kannada
ಸಕಾರಣವಾದ ಆಧಾರ, ತಾರ್ಕಿಕಾಧಾರ, ನ್ಯಾಯಸಮ್ಮತವಾದ ಆಧಾರ, ತತ್ವಾಧಾರ

Examples of rationale in a sentence

  • The rationale behind GSK's buy is that bigger is better, in terms of vaccine valency.
  • The rationale for use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) varies among athletes.
  • Promoting economic independence and republican freedom no longer provided the rationales for expansion or international power.

All 40 example sentences with rationale

Synonyms of rationale

Forms of rationale

pluralrationales
pluralrationalia

Plural of rationale: rationales or rationalia

Origin of rationale

From Late Latin ratiōnāle.

From Latin ratiōnāle.

Words that rhyme with rationale

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rationale

What does rationale mean?
Rationale means an explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.
What is rationale in Tamil?
Rationale in Tamil is அடிப்படைக் கோட்பாடு, உள்ளர்ந்த காரணம், உள்ளார்ந்த காரணம். See Rationale meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is rationale?
Rationale is a noun.
How do you pronounce rationale?
Rationale is pronounced /ˌɹæʃ.əˈnɑːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of rationale?
The plural of rationale is rationales.

Words near rationale in the dictionary

  1. rational numbers
  2. rational root theorem
  3. rational selfishness
  4. rational symptom
  5. rational symptoms
  6. rationale
  7. rationales
  8. rationalia
  9. rationalification
  10. rationalifications
  11. rationalisable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rationale (page history and authors); rationale (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rationale (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rationale (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rationale (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); rationale (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “rationale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rationale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.