rationale
noun
Simple meaning
The reasons behind a decision or belief.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rashuhnalSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹæʃəˈnæl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.
law
An explanation of the fundamental reasons (especially an explanation of the working of some device in terms of laws of nature)
A justification or rationalization for something.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An explanation of the basis or fundamental reasons for something.
Used this way, rationale 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
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 rationale
- “The rationale for capital punishment.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In a rational manner.
Defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning.
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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.