The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - rationalizev.

1) make plausible or believable or understandable or acceptable or reasonable, make allowance(s) or excuses for, vindicate, account for, justify, excuse, reason away, explain away: How can you rationalize taking my car without my permission? 2 think through, reason out; apply logic to, ratiocinate: He warps the statistics to rationalize his argument. The fundamentalists make no attempt to rationalize their literal interpretation of the Scripture.