ratiocination
[rash-ee-os-uh-ney-shuh n, -oh-suh-, rat-ee-]
- the process of logical reasoning.
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Origin of ratiocination
1520–30; < Latin ratiōcinātiōn- (stem of ratiōcinātiō), equivalent to ratiōcināt(us) (see ratiocinate) + -iōn- -ion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ratiocinative
Historical Examples
His mind is too full, too crowded, too ratiocinative, for easy and frugal utterance.
Plum PuddingChristopher Morley
The Kriton makes powerful appeal to the emotions, but overlooks the ratiocinative difficulties, or supposes them to be solved.
It would be absurd to say that the ratiocinative, literal mind is higher than the ideal.
Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez CodexWilliam E. Gates
The eagle eye of his genius perceived intuitively what other men generally attain only as the result of ratiocinative process.
Tobias SmollettOliphant Smeaton
Either half of it, the Ratiocinative or the Inductive, would have surpassed any previous work on the same subject.
Word Origin and History for ratiocinative
ratiocination
n.
"process of reasoning," 1520s, from Latin ratiocinationem (nominative ratiocinatio) "a reasoning, calm reasoning," from past participle stem of ratiocinare "to calculate, deliberate," from ratio (see ratio) + -cinari, which probably is related to conari "to try" (see conation).
Most writers make ratiocination synonymous with reasoning. J.S. Mill and others hold that the word is usually limited to necessary reasoning. [Century Dictionary]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper