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rational
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show 189 more with this conextual meaning
  • Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational.   (source)
    rational = based on logical analysis alone
  • We found him in a state of considerable excitement, but far more rational in his speech and manner than I had ever seen him.   (source)
    rational = reasonable
  • In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being.   (source)
    rational = capable of reasoning
  • It sounded so rational, the alternatives so clear.†   (source)
  • The constant, unceasing struggle sessions injected vivid political images into their consciousness like mercury, until their minds, erected upon knowledge and rationality, collapsed under the assault.†   (source)
  • Rory's words made rational sense, but hunger and fear had a way of overpowering intellect.†   (source)
  • The books the bellhops had lugged to the attic had been his father's and, devoted as they were to studies of rational philosophy and the science of modern agriculture, each promised heft and threatened impenetrability.†   (source)
  • When the driver—nicknamed Big Red because of his size and hair color—repeated the insult, Uncle Pet did what any rational business owner would do: He pulled the man from his truck, beat him unconscious, and ran an electric saw up and down his body.†   (source)
  • My rational half said it was just a squirrel or a scent, but that didn't stop my heart from pounding as I lay there, listening to them and wondering whether someone was approaching the house.†   (source)
  • Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?†   (source)
  • Her protective vigilance for her surviving family had overtaken rationality.†   (source)
  • What monsters will creep from the darkness and steal my rationality?†   (source)
  • We asked courts to recognize that such a judgment cannot rationally be passed on children below a certain age because they are unfinished products, human works in progress.†   (source)
  • When Laila "went to bed, her mind was muffled up, clouded, incapable of sustained rational thought.†   (source)
  • "But the Grail seems the only rational conclusion," she insisted.†   (source)
  • It was too strange; he couldn't bring his rational mind to accept what was happening.†   (source)
  • He spoke quite rationally to me.†   (source)
  • They raise the antenna too high, broadcast for too many minutes, assume the world offers safety and rationality when of course it does not.†   (source)
  • 'Love is the only rational act.'†   (source)
  • The one rational explanation for all this would have been that she did not sleep, but this was not the case.†   (source)
  • I seemed, on the surface, to be continually talking to myself, giving myself instructions or admonishments, asking myself what I really wanted, making comparisons, busily working my rational faculties over every aspect of Jess and my feelings for him as if there were actually something to decide.†   (source)
  • She stared at the note and tried to think rationally.†   (source)
  • I'll kill him, Alex thought rationally, calmly, after I take care of my daughter.†   (source)
  • My version of events sounded perfectly rational until I was forced to say the words aloud, and then it sounded insane, particularly on the day I had to say them to the police officer who came to our house.†   (source)
  • In fact, rational thinking is a struggle.†   (source)
  • Some days I was more rational.†   (source)
  • Before the altar of this most rational of churches.†   (source)
  • There are two kinds of fears: rational and irrational—or, in simpler terms, fears that make sense and fears that don't.†   (source)
  • It doesn't seem one bit rational.†   (source)
  • She was a therapist and relied on her ability to hear bad news and discuss rationally the difficult details of her patients' lives, but she found herself leaning into the young policeman who had led her over.†   (source)
  • He tried to be rational.†   (source)
  • The last time she saw him was in their high school gymnasium after the lights went out, and then only the back of his head, and the only times that she's seen him since happened in her mind, the rational part of which always knew Ben Parish was dead like everyone else.†   (source)
  • It was hard to think rationally when he looked at me that way.†   (source)
  • If you didn't know that she was acting rational on the far side of crazy.†   (source)
  • Because, I mean—mending old things, preserving them, looking after them—on some level there's no rational grounds for it —†   (source)
  • That is the single idea in my mind, the one that has supplanted the possibility of all other rational thought.†   (source)
  • You could go around implying you'd read all kinds of things, nodding knowingly when someone mentioned, say, War and Peace, and the understanding was that no one would scrutinise your claim too rationally.†   (source)
  • They are not rational.†   (source)
  • "But then," he paused, still focused on staying rational, "why is there such an emphasis on you being a Father?†   (source)
  • In a more rational society, an ability to write would be of great help to her.†   (source)
  • Our persona was opinionated to the point of absurdity, prejudiced beyond rationality, and functionally insane.†   (source)
  • he said, was that, aided by the calming effects of the drug, Marley would be able to more rationally cope with storms and eventually realize they were nothing but a lot of harmless noise.†   (source)
  • A plate of eggs, a couple sausages, and some fried potatoes later, I felt I could begin to think rationally about my situation.†   (source)
  • But shortly afterwards, guided by an instinct that I could hardly have analysed rationally, I changed my plan: I left the room, hurried to the ladder leading from the landing to the attic, climbed up it, pushed the ladder away and closed the attic trapdoor after me.†   (source)
  • We want her to help us persuade you, Johnny said in a voice that was too calm and rational for this eerie place.†   (source)
  • Something outside the possibility of rational justification was taking place in front of my incredulous eyes.†   (source)
  • I had just learned I would soon die, and in my inability to stop being rationally focused, I found myself thinking: "Shouldn't a room like this, at a time like this, have a box of Kleenex?†   (source)
  • Nathaniel is confronting his fears and thinking more rationally.†   (source)
  • Or because they believed that, emotions out of the way, supreme rationality would result, utter logic, true enlightenment.†   (source)
  • As time passed, however, even sober men and women began to think of him in less-than-rational terms.†   (source)
  • Let's discuss this rationally.†   (source)
  • Meanwhile Mrs. Huckaby, the woman I considered to be somewhat near fair and rational about the whole situation, had lapsed back into her attitude of trying to convince me there was nothing going on.†   (source)
  • One night I came home and she sat me down and laid everything out, very calmly, very rationally—or at least as rational as you can be in that kind of situation.†   (source)
  • According to Hegel, the study of history shows that humanity is moving toward greater rationality and freedom.†   (source)
  • I felt as though I could think more rationally.†   (source)
  • Even so, something that could neither be seen nor felt was invading his body, and no rational person would be happy with that.†   (source)
  • It was the beginning of rational religion, too, the first time that people began to think about abstract issues like God and Good and Evil.†   (source)
  • The damage to the door was impossible to hide, and she realized that when her husband saw it she would have to give some rational explanation, but she consoled herself with the argument that as mistress of the house she had a right to know what was going on beneath her roof.†   (source)
  • I tried to stay calm and rational because it seemed Sarawa and his men were intent on saving me.†   (source)
  • There is a fear beyond words, beyond rational thought.†   (source)
  • The kind of contagion Phillips is talking about isn't something rational or even necessarily conscious.†   (source)
  • Those kinds of stressors, in addition to the already crazy hormones, could easily lead to depression, anxiety, and rage, which make it harder for her to make rational decisions.†   (source)
  • He was a deplumed, maniacal parrot who did not speak when asked to but only when it was least expected, but then he did so with a clarity and rationality that were uncommon among human beings.†   (source)
  • Martin swung between rationality and pure lunacy.†   (source)
  • On a scale of one to ten, one being perfectly rational and reasonable and ten being absurd and certifiable.†   (source)
  • He had realized, with Saphira's help, that the only way to stay rational amid such pain was todo things.†   (source)
  • The voice came from a cool, rational region far above my head.†   (source)
  • I don't think my prayers were particularly rational and well thought out, but more like: if You let us win this game, I will do as much as I can to honor You.†   (source)
  • I was so worried that I wasn't acting rationally.†   (source)
  • For purposes of discussion, keep your passion to a minimum and make your points rationally.†   (source)
  • Rationally, I knew it was a quick draw and a big leap, but emotionally, the stakes were too high to step back and think it over.†   (source)
  • Were just trying to tell you that if you want to leave, we think that would be a good, rational decision.†   (source)
  • Although by any rational standard I was still at high altitude-21,300 feet-this place felt manifestly different from the South Col. The murderous wind had completely abated.†   (source)
  • I let her out was the first rational thought I had.†   (source)
  • The rational part of my brain finally kicked in, stomping down the chaos of panic and terror that had overtaken me.†   (source)
  • The ghost of rational Mia.†   (source)
  • A voice in his head warned him not to let his emotions govern his actions, and rationally, he couldn't see how anything good could come of him traipsing off in search of her.†   (source)
  • Even though I am not yet a member of the board, I was able to meet with Superintendent Seymour—who has, I assure you, my deepest respect—and discuss in a calm, rational fashion what might be done.†   (source)
  • She watched the candlelight dance on his face while he concentrated, scrutinizing every move of Joe's fingers, searching as he always did for the rational solution.†   (source)
  • The sociologist George Ritzer has attacked the fast food industry for celebrating a narrow measure of efficiency over every other human value, calling the triumph of McDonald's "the irrationality of rationality."†   (source)
  • Reston was one of the first planned suburbs in America, a visible symbol of the American belief in rational design and suburban prosperity, a community of gently curved streets, making arcs through landscaped neighborhoods, where disorder and chaos were given no sign of acknowledgment and no places to hide.†   (source)
  • Social psychologists argue that all this reflects the way our consciences and ethical systems are based on individual stories and are distinct from the parts of our brains concerned with logic and rationality.†   (source)
  • Rational thought flew from my mind.†   (source)
  • Within the boundaries of his irrational logic, this was a rational decision.†   (source)
  • I switch off the TV, bury my head in my hands, and try to think calmly and rationally.†   (source)
  • The 'sane' murderer is thought of as acting upon rational motives that can be understood, though condemned, and the 'insane' one as being driven by irrational senseless motives.†   (source)
  • This settled me somewhat, even as the more rational part of my mind reminded me that never, in the course of oh, say, fifteen relationships since junior high school, had I ever had the urge to buy a boyfriend anything more permanent than a Zip Coke.†   (source)
  • The ultimate egotism, more broadly, is a belief in the existence of God ...though, rationally, there is no way to get there from here.†   (source)
  • Rationally, Amatis's words made sense, but it didn't do much to quiet the voice inside her screaming that she couldn't wait.†   (source)
  • It wasn't rational to think of driving cattle over eighty waterless miles, but he had learned in his years of tracking Indians that things which seemed impossible often weren't.†   (source)
  • Only Johnnie, speeding down the room away from it all, was doing anything rational to avert the catastrophe.†   (source)
  • All he has to do is admit he was wrong, to indicate, demonstrate rational contact, and the treatment would be canceled this time.†   (source)
  • A Connecticut chaplain, Benjamin Trumbull, who only a short while before had delivered a rousing sermon calling for courage and heroism in battle, wrote in his diary : The men were blamed for retreating and even flying ...but I imag[in]e the fault was principally in the general officers ...to give the men [a] rational prospect of defense and a safe retreat, should they engage the enemy.†   (source)
  • Think about it, she'll get dolled up in one of those satin monstrosities no rational girl would ever wear, and they'll take one of those awful pictures—†   (source)
  • What could be at the bottom of it all but a rash and not quite rational move to reject what proclaimed itself to be his weighty duty, hisEs muss sein!†   (source)
  • No reason can be given for the nature of God, because that nature is the ground of rationality.†   (source)
  • They were the people of superior sensibility, the ones who'd gained a rational mastery over themselves, who were not subject to moral ambivalence, to the sentimental babyshit of consequence and anguish.†   (source)
  • If you say, Well, I just think how much could have been done with twenty thousand dollars, you sound thoughtful, sensible, you know, reasonable, rational, someone you really want on your side.†   (source)
  • His best chance of doing so is to engage the public's emotions, for emotion is the enemy of rational argument.†   (source)
  • It was the most rational Thanksgiving he had ever spent, and he took a sacred oath to spend every future Thanksgiving Day in the cloistered shelter of a hospital.†   (source)
  • Later Yen taught us, 'After life, the rational soul ascends the dragon; the sentient soul descends the dragon.†   (source)
  • He might have spent two-thirds of his life caught up in something beyond rational belief, but he'd never heard another woman talk like Quinn Black.†   (source)
  • Through the haze of his interrupted sleep and his questionable abilities of discernment, he attempted to consider the problem rationally.†   (source)
  • He believed in rational thinking and scientific inquiry, which was why he never won an argument with his mother, who believed in people doing what she told them, and believed it with a rock-hard certainty that dismissed all opposition.†   (source)
  • Lanier showed genuine concern for this woman he'd never met, and poked and prodded enough to convey the message that strong painkillers taken by very sick people often cause a lapse in rational thinking.†   (source)
  • Whatever rational part that had been holding her back from diving into the darkness simply dissolved.†   (source)
  • Without thinking things through with his rational mind, Vlad grabbed Eddie by the shirt collar and slammed him up against a nearby tree.†   (source)
  • To be calm and rational, she had to think like a cop, not like a woman.†   (source)
  • But reason—or at least a willingness to conquer rational terror—prevailed and Max crept back down the stairs.†   (source)
  • By tomorrow, she'll be rational —I can explain why I didn't want to turn the girls in.†   (source)
  • It isn't rational, is it?†   (source)
  • There is, by the way, an area in which a man's feelings are more rational than his mind, and it is precisely in that area that his will is pulled in several directions at the same time.†   (source)
  • The words you use, the words you react to; the phrases you employ-when I can write them down-both rationally and when you talk in your sleep and when you were in coma.†   (source)
  • Then my sister, the debutante, who is supposedly away at school learning to curtsy and embroider and order mussels in French, unleashed a force the likes of which I've never seen and which cannot be explained by any rational mind or laws of science.†   (source)
  • "You found our baseball," Enrique said rationally.†   (source)
  • He sounded pretty rational, after all.†   (source)
  • Give a computer enough groups and a rational theory involving meanings or subjects for meanings, and it will eventually worry it out because meanings themselves will show patterns.†   (source)
  • The soldiers of the Bell Tower believed that although it was obviously dangerous to swim in the branch of the Isonzo that ran below them, it was perfectly all right, even rational, if the swimming party numbered no more and no less than three men.†   (source)
  • His voice was so calm and rational.†   (source)
  • I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.†   (source)
  • However, he had a problem; one that he was trying to deal with calmly and rationally.†   (source)
  • All that rational, sensible stuff.†   (source)
  • The night of the summer solstice, when magic tingled in the air, exciting all but the rational beings who had rejected such base instinctual urges, had begun.†   (source)
  • He had a hunch that eventually he would arrive at a rational explanation derived from this consideration of the supernatural, a provable theory that would be as logical as the meticulously structured prose of Henry James.†   (source)
  • But I guess the ability to think rationally has deserted me because I don't deny it at all.†   (source)
  • After that, I did a better job of listening and, eventually, the concept of rational functions started to make a little sense.†   (source)
  • And as much as you want to think we should be civilized right now, as much as you want to deal with this rationally, there comes a time, Caroline.†   (source)
  • Therefore, a rational government knows the advantage of having the prejudices of the community on its side.†   (source)
  • Being as coldly rational as a human calculator ...it is.†   (source)
  • All rational thought shut down and the nightmarish doubt replayed itself again and again in my mind.†   (source)
  • Uncontrollable floods of fear washed my normally rational mind clean of reason.†   (source)
  • "Tell me what you did, Pig," I said, trying to remain rational.†   (source)
  • Returning effortlessly to his former rational style, he continued: "You can see now what London did.†   (source)
  • This one, I knew, left you rational, unable to lie, and somewhat literal-minded.†   (source)
  • In order to collect my senses I decided to stay there at the Maple Court for a while, during which time I hoped to lay out a bright and rational plan of action.†   (source)
  • I've never believed in the supernatural: I'm no scientist, but I think there's a rational explanation for everything.†   (source)
  • With the body definitely not being the self, and not the spectacle of the senses, so it also was not the thought, not the rational mind, not the learned wisdom, not the learned ability to draw conclusions and to develop previous thoughts in to new ones.†   (source)
  • He hurried on as though his pace might hasten the time when everything on earth would be as rational and harmonious as it was now inside his feverish head.†   (source)
  • But while you're being so rational, why at least please be rational enough to realize that we experienced what we experienced.†   (source)
  • Surely there must be some rational explanation of all these mysterious things.   (source)
    rational = based on scientifically accepted truths
  • When I reflected on the work I had completed, no less a one than the creation of a sensitive and rational animal, I could not rank myself with the herd of common projectors.   (source)
    rational = capable of reasoning
  • This was complete lunacy as far as he was concerned, and there was no way to deal with it rationally.†   (source)
  • All rational thought dissolved into panic.†   (source)
  • Peeta's fairly rational about our suggestion.†   (source)
  • Langdon's head ached, and he felt like he was skirting the edges of rationality.†   (source)
  • Toast cannot be explained by any rational means.†   (source)
  • But the facts were what they were, and my plan was the only one that made rational sense.†   (source)
  • A process by which I use my brain to make a rational decision.†   (source)
  • Sometimes he's almost rational, and then, for no reason, he goes off again.†   (source)
  • Some small rational part of me realized I was in deep shock.†   (source)
  • It was a feeling as pure as love, but dispassionate and icily rational.†   (source)
  • Then again, some small rational part of me realized she might be right.†   (source)
  • His arguments are rational and coherent.†   (source)
  • It was not entirely rational — Jacob was hardly in need of any physical protection I could offer.†   (source)
  • He nodded lightly and said, "Yeah, I know," and then added, "I'm not saying it's rational.†   (source)
  • In the dark, rationality seemed stupid and logic a dream.†   (source)
  • Rather, she looked with a rational gaze on the madness and hatred that had harmed her.†   (source)
  • Whatever the case, Sadie was right: it wasn't a rational choice for me.†   (source)
  • There's no 'rational grounds' for anything I care about.†   (source)
  • Calling it murder is just a way to ignite the issue; get emotions in the way of rational decisions.†   (source)
  • That's not very smart ... You're not dumb, but you're not being rational.†   (source)
  • Part of my brain—the rational, educated part, the logical me part—screams, Blue!†   (source)
  • He said, 'Love is the only rational act.'†   (source)
  • There was nothing rational about Holmes, but his behavior seemed to follow a pattern.†   (source)
  • "Finally, a rational response!" he murmured.†   (source)
  • I have no idea what I was going to say to her nothing rational, I'm sure.†   (source)
  • It doesn't mean that it is actually irrational, but it surely is not rational.†   (source)
  • He's too calm, too rational, too cool for it to be completely, well, cool.†   (source)
  • Judaism was the first of the rational religions.†   (source)
  • I call, but I know he won't turn back and wait for me to give a rational explanation.†   (source)
  • It's sort of like the president of the brain, in charge of calculated, rational thought.†   (source)
  • Capitalism is an economic system which is self-destructive because it lacks rational control.†   (source)
  • I think they're a little more gone than we are, starting to lose their rational sides.†   (source)
  • But once I reached the boiling point, I lost all rational control.†   (source)
  • They knew now that their fear had been rational.†   (source)
  • But he and all the Gladers were far too rational and intelligent to conclude such a thing.†   (source)
  • You lose any chance of being rational, having common sense, having compassion.†   (source)
  • Ye's rational consideration of humanity's evil side began the day she read Silent Spring.†   (source)
  • You also said that the French have always been more rational than the British.†   (source)
  • There was no point in fighting if he was going to be rational; I dropped my arms.†   (source)
  • But he knew it to be true—it was the only explanation his rational mind could accept.†   (source)
  • Some distant, rational part of my mind thought: of course, to make it volatile.†   (source)
  • In any case, this was the birth of rational religion.†   (source)
  • And she used it to make a rational argument look silly.†   (source)
  • Maybe it wasn't rational, but the world I lived in wasn't rational anymore.†   (source)
  • There was no rational explanation for how I was alive at this moment.†   (source)
  • Which-as a Yankees fan myself-was enough to call into question his capacity for rational thought.†   (source)
  • It wasn't that Van Riper hated all rational analysis.†   (source)
  • But it is a striking example of how people's views of what is rational change all the time.†   (source)
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