Word.ws English Dictionary

recta ratio

UK/ˈɹɛktə ˈɹeɪʃɪəʊ/

recta ratio noun: “Right reason”, which regards virtue as desirable in itself.

Noun

recta ratio (uncountable)

  1. “Right reason”, which regards virtue as desirable in itself.
    • Here we may ſee whence the Scholemen borrowed their Recta ratio, right reaſon, which they make with the Philoſophers to be the Regula eſſe moralis, the rule of Moral Beings and Actions.1677, Theophilus Gale, The Court of the Gentiles, part III: “The Vanity of Pagan Philoſophie Demonſtrated”, ii:4.3, page 38

Origin of recta ratio

First attested in an English text in 1677; borrowed from Latin rēcta ratiō (“right reason”), a calque of Ancient Greek ὀρθὸς λόγος (orthòs lógos). Cf. Cicero, De leg. I, 7, I, 2: “Recta ratio - quae cum sit lex, lege quoque consociati homines cum diis putandi sumus.” Term used in a letter to "Tom" by John Locke, October 20, 1659: “...We are all centaurs, and ’tis the beast that carries us, and everyone’s recta ratio is but the traverses of his own steps.”

Questions about recta ratio

What does recta ratio mean?
Recta ratio means “Right reason”, which regards virtue as desirable in itself.
What part of speech is recta ratio?
Recta ratio is a noun.
How do you pronounce recta ratio?
Recta ratio is pronounced /ˈɹɛktə ˈɹeɪʃɪəʊ/ (UK).

Words near recta ratio in the dictionary

  1. recs
  2. rect
  3. rect-
  4. rect.
  5. recta
  6. recta ratio
  7. rectagonal
  8. rectagraph
  9. rectagraphs
  10. rectahedral
  11. rectahedron

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recta ratio (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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