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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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In June, a conference started by charity prediction market Manifold displayed the wild panoply of Berkeley AI subcultures—from doomers to an independent sex researcher named Aella who is popular in the Berkeley rationalist community.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

But inside the brain trusts of Silicon Valley, billions of investor dollars and years of tortured rationalist arguments are clouding a similar argument about artificial intelligence.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

In 2022, a warrant was issued when Lasota failed to show up for a court hearing, related to the protest outside the rationalist organisation meeting.

From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2025

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

There is a puzzle here, because the standard alternative to voluntarism is rationalism, and a rationalist would hold that the laws of nature, like the laws of mathematics, exist because they are necessary.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

I thought about all those who had denounced the popes and the church they headed before him: the sans culottes, the guillotinists, the tricoteuses; all the rationalists, the Marxists, the humanists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 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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