RATIONALLY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rationally mean? 

• RATIONALLY (adverb)
  The adverb RATIONALLY has 1 sense:

1. in a rational manner

  Familiarity information: RATIONALLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RATIONALLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a rational manner

Context example:

we must act rationally

Antonym:

irrationally (in an irrational manner)

Pertainym:

rational (consistent with or based on or using reason)

 Context examples 

It was Mr. Collins's picture of Hunsford and Rosings rationally softened; and Elizabeth perceived that she must wait for her own visit there to know the rest.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Elton may talk sentimentally, but he will act rationally.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

As nothing was really left for the decision of Mrs. Price, or the good offices of Rebecca, everything was rationally and duly accomplished, and the girls were ready for the morrow.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Lodenosine is a synthetic purine fluoro-dideoxyadenosine derivative that was rationally designed to have improved chemical and enzymatic stability.

(Lodenosine, NCI Thesaurus)

A rationally designed, orally available, Class 1-selective, small molecule, 2-aminobenzamide HDAC inhibitor with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Mocetinostat, NCI Thesaurus)

But then you spend your time so much more rationally in the country.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I would be quiet if he liked, and as to talking rationally, I flattered myself I was doing that now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Well! But my dearest life!” said I, “you might be very happy, and yet be treated rationally.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The metric system units have to satisfy three conditions: one fundamental unit is defined for each quantity; multiples and fractions of fundamental units are created by adding prefixes (denoting powers of ten) to the names of the defined units; the fundamental units are defined rationally and are related to each other in a rational fashion.

(Metric System, NCI Thesaurus)

The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to every thing but her beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding years—years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education, while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)