Word of the Day Archive
Sunday January 16, 2000
ratiocination \rash-ee-ah-suh-NAY-shun; rash-ee-oh-\
, noun:
The process of logical reasoning.
For all their vaunted powers of ratiocination, grand masters of chess tend to be a skittery lot.
-- "People", Time, October 26, 1987
The adventures of Sherlock Holmes proved so popular that it became a given that mystery tales should include a sleuth who investigates a murder or other crime, and by virtue of intelligence, ratiocination and perseverance solves a case that initially seemed unsolvable.
-- Maxim Jakubowski, "A beginner's guide to crime fiction", The Guardian, October 29, 1999
Anticipating Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by more than 20 years, an American physician named John Babbington Williams was scribbling stories extolling the fictional exploits of James Brampton, a New York detective with uncanny gifts of observation and ratiocination.
-- Marilyn Stasio, "Guilt's Companion ", New York Times, December 26, 2008
Ratiocination is from Latin rationcinatio, from ratiocinari, "to compute, to calculate, to reason," from ratio, "reckoning, calculation, reason," from reri, "to reckon, to think."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ratiocination
