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rationalist

[rash-uhn-uhl-ist] / ˈræʃ ən əl ɪst /
NOUN
realist
Synonyms




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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It looked like a semantic quibble but in these circles, it was a serious accusation, one that drew rebuke even from Elmore’s husband, Ronny Fernandez, a rationalist and self-described “unlicensed philosopher.”

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 12, 2026

In 2019 Lasota and three others were arrested while holding a protest outside an event held by a rationalist organisation.

From BBC Feb. 20, 2025

His father had been dead for eight years — and he’d been a scientist and a rationalist — but there he was, trying to comfort his son.

From New York Times May 21, 2024

Intriguingly, a few informal but large surveys from the rationalist community suggest that both complete monogamy and complete polyamory tend to be more satisfying than the “monogamish” middle ground.

From Slate May 5, 2024

But then it was José Arcadio Buendía who took the lead and tried to break down the priest's faith with rationalist tricks.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The young man was part of a loose network called the Zizians: self-proclaimed rationalists who believe a misaligned AI superintelligence could one day torture humanity the way factory farms torture animals.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 4, 2026

This represents one of the oldest debates in human thought: rationalists vs. empiricists.

From Slate Sep. 26, 2025

Lasota began blogging using the alias "Ziz", but soon fell out with mainstream rationalists as her writings spun off in bizarre directions.

From BBC Feb. 20, 2025

They include atheists, agnostics, the culturally religious but not observant, rationalists and the spiritual but not religious.

From Seattle Times Oct. 4, 2023

The existence of this romantic tendency constitutes at least a small part of the emotional makeup of most mathematicians, and is perhaps surprising to those who think of mathematicians as cold rationalists.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos




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