Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To provide with an incentive or a reason for doing something; impel.
  • transitive verb To cause to be enthusiastic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To motive; act as a motive or as the inciting cause of; induce.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To provide with a motive; to move; impel; induce; incite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage.
  • verb transitive To animate; to propel; to cause to take action

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give an incentive for action

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

motive +‎ -ate

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word motivate.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.