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
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Recent Examples of rationalizing
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
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
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The leader of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that fights antisemitism, is explaining his group's decision to set up a special project to monitor Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City.—
NPR,
NPR,
7 Nov. 2025
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Ukraine knows about the value of culture as soft power and spends a lot of money explaining to the world what’s going on in their country.—
Annika Pham,
Variety,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Judge Ellis found that Bovino wasn’t hit in the head with a rock prior to deploying tear gas despite claims from the Department of Homeland Security justifying the use of force.—
Bill Kirkos,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
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While working on the project, costs ballooned unexpectedly—reaching well over six figures—and this doctrine became an important reminder when justifying the expenses.—
Michelle Duncan,
Architectural Digest,
31 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Rationalizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rationalizing. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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