rationalization

• rationalisation

First attested in 1831. From French rationalisation, equivalent to rational +‎ -ization or rationalize +‎ -ation.

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rationalization

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rationalization (countable and uncountable, plural rationalizations)

1. The process or result of rationalizing.

   Coordinate term: casuistry

   • 2014 October 17, Daniel W. Crofts, “What Union Soldiers Thought About the Civil War”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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.”

   • 2024 September 16, Gabrielle Giffords, “Gabby Giffords: It’s the Guns. It’s Always the Guns.”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died.

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

   Synonyms: rationale, reasoning

3. (economics) The reorganization of a company or organization in order to improve its efficiency through the reallocation of resources and changes in its workforce.
   • 1915 May, John Spargo, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science‎^[3], volume 59, page 160:

     For socialism involves the reconstruction of industry upon the principle of production for use. It involves the rationalization of industry, the proper adjustment of production to the social requirements.

   • 1930 September, Ian MacGregor, “Problems of Rationalisation”, in The Economic Journal‎^[4], volume 40, number 159, page 351:

     The former, technical rationalisation, is a question of improvements carried out within businesses by the managers, methods like scientific management, the rapidity with which machinery is scrapped, the supervision of labour, by the stop-watch method or any other method, and generally what we economists have been in the habit of calling "internal economies."

   Synonym: consolidation

4. (psychiatry) The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
5. (mathematics) The simplification of an expression without changing its value.

• backward rationalization
• rationalization hamster