as in explaining
to give the reason for or cause of
rationalized his decision to buy the new car by noting that it was more fuel efficient than his old vehicle
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of rationalizing
Instead of rationalizing it, seeing it from his shoes and changing your tactics with him.
—
E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2025
Aeffe is rationalizing its retail network and earlier this month the board approved the early termination of the rental contract signed with two real estate firms, Colloportus and FQuattro, respectively controlled by designer Alberta Ferretti and her brother, executive chairman Massimo Ferretti.
—Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 11 Nov. 2025
This time, rationalizing the medical results was impossible.
—Megan Feringa, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
Boards under pressure for growth routinely make the wrong choice—rationalizing the damage as a problem for their successors.
—Andrew King, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2025
To find the best, most up-to-date information, that validation typically involves toggling between PubMed, society guidelines, journal notifications and conference summaries, and then rationalizing information that doesn’t always align.
—Anna Forsythe, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Headed one direction This line of thinking leads in one direction — rationalizing extreme measures in response.
—David French, Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2025
With this setup, and with two stars who have done well playing characters on their respective Houses with a great capacity for rationalizing their cruelty to others, The Girlfriend could easily get away with going back and forth on the blame game for most of its six-hour length.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rationalizing
Verb
-
The dispute was resolved after Singh agreed to provide additional context, explaining that the files were collaborative documents shared among participants through the messaging app Signal.—
-
Scanning them launches video tutorials explaining what each product does — without forcing customers to ask questions in a store.—
Verb
-
Two skeptics of the COVID vaccine, who were appointed to administration roles just last month, authored a brief assessment justifying the overhaul.—
-
But the opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel justifying the strikes remains classified.—
Cite this Entry
“Rationalizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rationalizing. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share