rationalist

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.

“For us to conclude that a law of 160 years’ vintage, with this kind of empirical pedigree, has all along been both unnecessary and improper, would border on rationalist conceit.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 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

The same contradictions that marked his father’s life went even deeper in Mr. Nashenas’s own: a secular man in a profoundly religious family; a rationalist in a society trapped in tribal ways.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2023

When Musk declares that he is motivated by “a duty to maintain the light of consciousness,” for example, the SpaceX CEO sounds less like an enlightened rationalist than a technological shaman.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2023

On most questions Descartes is a rationalist, but as far as the laws of nature are concerned he appears to want to have it both ways.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton