Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The mental process of passing from the cognition of premises to the cognition of the conclusion; reasoning.
  • noun A mental product and object consisting of premises and a conclusion drawn from them; inference; an argumentation.
  • noun Synonyms Reasoning, etc. See inference.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The process of reasoning, or deducing conclusions from premises; deductive reasoning.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Reasoning, conscious deliberate inference; the activity or process of reasoning.
  • noun Thought or reasoning that is exact, valid and rational.
  • noun A proposition arrived at by such thought.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun logical and methodical reasoning
  • noun the proposition arrived at by logical reasoning (such as the proposition that must follow from the major and minor premises of a syllogism)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French ratiocination, from Latin ratiocinatio ("reasoning, argumentation, a syllogism"), from ratiocinatus, past participle of ratiocinari ("to reason")

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Examples

  • Argumentative as the Buddhist suttas are, their aim is strictly practical, even when their language appears scholastic, and the burden of all their ratiocination is the same and very simple.

    Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1 Charles Eliot 1896

  • There is a narrower sense, in which the name reasoning is confined to the form of inference which is termed ratiocination, and of which the syllogism is the general type.

    A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive John Stuart Mill 1839

  • There is a narrower sense, in which the name reasoning is confined to the form of inference which is termed ratiocination, and of which the syllogism is the general type.

    A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) John Stuart Mill 1839

  • Up against a ticking clock, myriad plot twists and turns and a roster of red herring suspects, the hero eventually solves the mystery through logical deduction, a process known as ratiocination, not to mention a little luck.

    WestportNow editor@westportnow.com 2010

  • Up against a ticking clock, myriad plot twists and turns and a roster of red herring suspects, the hero eventually solves the mystery through logical deduction, a process known as ratiocination, not to mention a little luck.

    WestportNow editor@westportnow.com 2010

  • a soliddity of judgement in him, so infinite a fancy bounde in by a most logicall ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not ignorant in any thinge, yet such an excessive humillity as if he had knowne nothinge, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, as in a Colledge scituated in a purer ayre, so that his house was

    Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles Various

  • The squareness of it showed "ratiocination"; and the fulness under the eyes "language".

    The Jewel of Seven Stars Bram Stoker 1879

  • And it is worth attention that when Clifford is aroused to sudden action by Judge Pyncheon's death, the coruscating play of his intellect is almost precisely that brilliant but defective kind of ratiocination which Poe so delights to display.

    A Study Of Hawthorne Lathrop, George P 1876

  • Judge Pyncheon's death, the coruscating play of his intellect is almost precisely that brilliant but defective kind of ratiocination which Poe so delights to display.

    A Study of Hawthorne George Parsons Lathrop 1874

  • Employing Poe's methods of "ratiocination," Scooby and friends embark on a madcap chase through the spooky house!

    ComicList Headlines ComicList 2010

Comments

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  • What is un-Japanese about Wordsworth, however - and you only need to remember a poem like The Prelude or "Tintern Abbey" to realise it - is the nimbus of introspection and ratiocination which surrounds the physical details of the scene. Seamus Heaney in The Guardian.

    November 25, 2007

  • There are numerous un-Japanese things about Wordsworth, I find.

    November 26, 2007

  • "He took the Naval Chronicle, and after a little while he burst in upon Stephen's ratiocination with a fine exultant cry, 'By God, Stephen, she did it! Ajax came up with the Méduse off La Hogue and beat her into mummy in thirty-five minutes...'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 361

    February 9, 2008

  • "He spent ten years in Thibet organising the clarified butter industry on modern European lines, and was able to retire at thirty-six with a handsome fortune. The rest of his life he devoted to travel and ratiocination; here is the result."

    - Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow

    March 29, 2008

  • What are the odds of a word having the exciting 'atio' sequence twice?

    December 1, 2008

  • For any word under eight letters long, pretty slim.

    December 1, 2008

  • About 10,000 to one for words of eight letters of more.

    December 1, 2008

  • Here is an example of "ratiocination" as it might appear in cases of mental illness as explored in "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

    "The faces of the patients wore the expression of one who had just signed profoundly, dismissing something insoluble--but their sighs only marked the beginning of another ceaseless round of RATIOCINATION, not in a line as with normal people but in the same circle. Round, round and round. Around forever."

    March 27, 2009

  • Edgar Allan Poe is said to have called the 1841 story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" his first "tale of ratiocination." Many today agree with his assessment and consider that Poe classic to be literature's first detective story. Poe didn't actually use ratiocination in "Rue Morgue," but the term does appear three times in its 1842 sequel, "The Mystery of Marie Roget." In "Marie Roget," the author proved his reasoning ability (ratiocination traces to ratio, Latin for "reason" or "computation"). The second tale was based on an actual murder, and as the case unfolded after the publication of Poe's work, it became clear that his fictional detective had done an amazing job of reasoning through the crime.

    November 15, 2023