Word of the Day Archive
Friday May 3, 2013
ratiocination \rash-ee-os-uh-NEY-shuhn, -oh-suh-, rat-ee-\
, noun:
the process of logical reasoning.
"I have been insisting to all my colleagues in the philosophy department, and elsewhere, that Conan Doyle's 'detective' has found the solution to our human folly: close observation of 'clues,' and shrewd 'ratiocination.'"
-- Joyce Carol Oats, The Accursed, 2013
By a not uncommon process of ratiocination, Mrs. Fetherel's success had convinced her of her vocation.
-- Edith Wharton, "Expiation," Cosmopolitan, 1908
Ratiocination is derived from the Latin word ratiōcinārī meaning "to reckon, calculate, conclude" which in turns come from the root ratiō meaning "reason."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for ratiocination
