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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ration.

A portion of some limited resource, especially food, allocated to a person, group or period.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹæʃən//ˈɹeɪʃən/Received-Pronunciation, dated/reːʃən/South-Asia
  1. A portion of some limited resource, especially food, allocated to a person, group or period.

    Jack gathered his meager ration of food.
    The town's ration of gasoline had to go to necessary vehicles.
Where this word comes from

From French ration. Doublet of reason and ratio.

verb/ˈɹæʃən//ˈɹeɪʃən/Received-Pronunciation, dated/reːʃən/South-Asia
  1. To supply with a ration; to limit (someone) to a specific allowance of something.

    transitive
    We rationed ourselves to three sips of water a day until we were rescued.
  2. To portion out (especially during a shortage of supply); to limit access to.

    transitive
    By the third day on the raft, we had to ration our water.
  3. To restrict (an activity etc.)

    transitive
    I've rationed myself to one cup of coffee a day.
    Our present health care system is rationed only to those who can afford it because of unnecessary high cost, lack of insurance coverage by 47 million people, and exorbitant prescription prices.
Where this word comes from

From French ration. Doublet of reason and ratio.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.