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rationale
Definition: (noun) an underlying reason or explanation.
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neu·tral  audio  (ntrl, ny-) KEY 

ADJECTIVE:
  1. Not aligned with, supporting, or favoring either side in a war, dispute, or contest.
  2. Belonging to neither side in a controversy: on neutral ground.
  3. Belonging to neither kind; not one thing or the other.
  4. Sexless; neuter.
  5. Chemistry
    1. Of or relating to a solution or compound that is neither acidic nor alkaline.
    2. Of or relating to a compound that does not ionize in solution.
  6. Physics
    1. Of or relating to a particle, an object, or a system that has neither positive nor negative electric charge.
    2. Of or relating to a particle, object, or system that has a net electric charge of zero.
  7. Of or indicating a color, such as gray, black, or white, that lacks hue; achromatic.
  8. Linguistics Pronounced with the tongue in a middle position, neither high nor low, as the a in around.
NOUN:
    1. A nation nonaligned with either side in a war.
    2. A citizen of such a nation.
  2. One who takes no side in a controversy: "I am by disposition one of life's neutrals, a human Switzerland" (John Gregory Dunne).
  3. A neutral hue.
  4. A position in which a set of gears is disengaged so that power cannot be transmitted.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English neuteral, from Old French neutral, from Latin neutrlis, grammatically neuter, from neuter, neutr- ; see neuter

OTHER FORMS:
neutral·ly(Adverb)


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