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rational

adjective

Simple meaning

Logically sound; not self-contradictory or otherwise absurd.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rashuhnuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹæʃənəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Logically sound; not self-contradictory or otherwise absurd.

  2. Capable of reasoning.

  3. of a person or personal characteristics

    Healthy or balanced intellectually; exhibiting reasonableness.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Logically sound; not self-contradictory or otherwise absurd.

Used this way, rational is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use rational

  • “Try to be rational when making important decisions about your future.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

rational numbersrational choicerational basisrational thoughtrational decisionrational soulrational beingsrational explanation

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • rationallyadverbDerived adverb

    In a rational manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • rational motivenounCompound term

    A motive that can be defended by reasoning or logical argument.

  • rational numbernounCompound term

    An integer or a fraction.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • irrational numbernounRelated term

    A real number that cannot be expressed as a rational number.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: logically sound

reasonable

Antonyms

Sense: logically sound

irrational

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.