reasonableness.

The extent to which a judgment, action or demand is rational, fair or appropriate under the relevant circumstances.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• standard of reasonableness
• reasonableness of a demand

On the page

The court examined the reasonableness of the restriction in its actual context.

The proposal’s reasonableness depended on the burden it imposed as well as the benefit it promised.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: inference, qualification, analysis, methodology. Disciplines: academic writing, reasoning, research. Commonness: moderately common.