How to use rationalization in a sentence

23 example sentences · noun

Rationalization means the process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms. Example: “Some rationalization of the language of his lectures is, of course, necessary.”

Examples of rationalization by meaning

nounThe process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.

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

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

Her self-flagellating rationalization for the theft was mostly ignored by the jury.
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.”2014 October 17, Daniel W. Crofts, “What Union Soldiers Thought About the Civil War”, in The New York Times
After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly.2024 September 16, Gabrielle Giffords, “Gabby Giffords: It’s the Guns. It’s Always the Guns.”, in The New York Times

nounThe reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of...

It began with the familiar political motives of civil service rationalization and downsizing.
It involves the rationalization of industry, the proper adjustment of production to the social requirements.1915 May, John Spargo, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, volume 59, page 160
Rationalization includes partnership ventures, and if approved would mean capacity reductions in both sectors with thousands of steelworkers' jobs affected.1980 December 10, “Steel industry changes sought”, in The Times, number 60798, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

nounThe simplification of an expression without changing its value.

Here, the rationalization of the denominator was unnecessary.

More sentences with rationalization

All these rationalizations for asinine behavior are getting on my nerves.From the entry nerve
A whole array of rationalizations justified the murder of innocent men, women and children.2009, Peter Fleming, Stelios C. Zyglidopoulos, Charting Corporate Corruption: Agency, Structure and Escalation, page 40. From the entry demonic
But his next words sucked all the air out of my rationalizations.2008, Eric Rosenblatt, The Bureaucrat of Last Resort, →ISBN, page 208. From the entry suck all the air out of
Call it expediently located irony, or convenient rationalization, but I was keeping the money.2001, Percival Everett, Erasure, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 289. From the entry expediently
But unfortunately all that his long-winded explanation amounts to is unconvincing rationalization by its tendency to epithetize a counter argument.2001, The Literary Criterion - Volume 36, page 18. From the entry epithetize
Millet is a cheap grain, signifying plainness and nonadornment, the simplicity of experience in itself, without pretense and artificial rationalization.2001, Thomas F. Cleary, Classics of Buddhism and Zen, page 545. From the entry nonadornment
They think they have a privileged right to forward motion, and they have elaborate internal rationalizations for breaking the law.2001 September 11, Morton Grosser, “GUEST OPINION: Another angle on car-bike protocol”, in The Almanac. From the entry momentum junkie
Rather, she'd be exposed to a mixture of bluster, scapegoating, rationalization, self-servingness, face-saving, self-delusion, self-pity, and outright lie.1987, John Wheatcroft, The Beholder's Eye, page 120. From the entry self-servingness
If two chronicles seemed contradictory, instead of trying to choose between them, a rationalization (epicycle) was devised to cover both.1978, The Journal of the Siam Society, volumes 66-67, page 152. From the entry epicycle
Some of this may have been because of postpurchase rationalization, but a lot of buyers seemed to be suffering anything but remorse.2009 June 30, John Tierney, “Calculating Consumer Happiness at Any Price”, in New York Times. From the entry postpurchase
The debate was dragged into the public and political arenas and the support and rationalizations for the 55-mph NMSL started to show serious flaws.2005 December, “10th Anniversary of the Repeal of the 55 NMSL”, in National Motorists Association. From the entry NMSL
You vile auxlangers will not admit that you have yielded to whims, choosing instead to concoct elaborate webs of rationalization about your imaginary future users.1997 February 18, Richard K Harrison, “Naturalismo e schematicismo, un problema in linguas auxiliar”, in sci.lang (Usenet). From the entry auxlanger
Thus, by the self-subversive logic of evolution in legal ideas, we derationalize procedure the better to vindicate the rationalization of substantive law.1997, Richard Rawlings, Law, Society, and Economy: Centenary Essays for the London School of Economics and Political Science 1895-1995…. From the entry derationalize
Words like "recession," "redundancy" and "rationalization."1996, Scott Bradfield, Animal Planet, quoted in NYT book review. From the entry r-word
The discriminatory sense of moral position denotes a subclass of anthropological morality by contrasting a sincere moral conviction about proper conduct with prejudices, rationalizations, parrotings of others, etc.2002, Michael D. Bayles, W. L. Robison, The Legal Essays of Michael Bayles, page 27. From the entry parroting

Meaning of rationalization

noun The process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.
noun A statement of one's motives, or of the causes of some event.
noun The reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of resources and changes in its workforce.

Full definition of rationalization

Questions about rationalization in a sentence

How do you use rationalization in a sentence?: Rationalization is used as a noun. For example: “Some rationalization of the language of his lectures is, of course, necessary.”
What is a short sentence with rationalization?: “Words like "recession," "redundancy" and "rationalization."”
What does rationalization mean?: Rationalization means the process or result of rationalizing, or expressing in rational terms.

Adapted from Wiktionary: rationalization (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use rationalization in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rationalization. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.