rationalise
/ˈɹæʃ.ə.nə.laɪz/verb
rationalise is a verb meaning “Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of rationalize” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-T-I-O-N-A-L-I-S-E and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 4 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does rationalise mean?
verb
- 1
UKNon-Oxford British English standard spelling of rationalize.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce rationalise?
- US /ˈɹæʃ.ə.nə.laɪz/
- Australia /ˈɹæʃ.ə.nə.lɑɪz/
Rationalise has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-rationalise.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of rationalise
- rationalises present, singular, he/she/it
- rationalising participle, present
- rationalised participle, past
- rationalize US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is rationalise?
Rationalise appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 62,179th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does rationalise come from?
From French rationaliser. By surface analysis, rational + -ise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).