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say it: RASH-uh-nuh-lahyz
rationalize is a verb meaning "defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning". It is pronounced /ˈɹæʃənəˌlaɪz/ — RASH-uh-nuh-lahyz. It carries 5 recorded senses.
weed out unwanted or unnecessary things
“We had to lose weight, so we cut the sugar from our diet”
structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results
“We rationalized the factory's production and raised profits”
think rationally; employ logic or reason
“When one wonders why one is doing certain things, one should rationalize”
remove irrational quantities from
“This function can be rationalized”
mathematics
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for rationalize come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.