motivate

(mō'tə-vāt')
tr.v., -vat·ed, -vat·ing, -vates.
To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel.

motivator mo'ti·va'tor n.

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Motivation has a special meaning in psychology which the Old English (up to 1150)D defines as 'the conscious or unconscious stimulus for action towards a desired goal especially as resulting from psychological or social factors; the factors giving purpose or direction to human or animal behaviour'. Both it and the corresponding verb motivate have entered the language of business and industrial personnel management to denote the factors that induce employees to work well:

The really crucial skills, to the headteacher charged with the responsibility of taking a school into this new territory, will be those of motivation, leadership and team-building—T. Brighouse et al., 1991

Get to know the people you work with—by taking the time to do this you know exactly what motivates them—Irish News, 2007.

From here it is a short step to over-generalized uses in which both words are little more than synonyms for cause (verb and noun) or reason:

The farming achievements of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were also motivated by the need for more food—J. Purseglove, 1989

There was no racial motivation for the attack—Leicester Mercury, 2007.

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verb

1. To stir to action or feeling: egg on, excite, foment, galvanize, goad, impel, incite, inflame, inspire, instigate, move, pique, prick, prod, prompt, propel, provoke, set off, spur, stimulate, touch off, trigger, work up. See cause/effect, excite/bore/interest.
2. To impart courage, inspiration, and resolution to: animate, cheer (on), embolden, encourage, inspire, inspirit. See help/harm/harmless.

v

Definition: stimulate, instigate
Antonyms: depress, disconcert, discourage, dissuade

IN BRIEF: Provided with a reason or given incentive for action..

Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes — Kenneth Hildebrand

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For a list of words related to motivated, see:

• Strong, Bold, or Tough

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See words rhyming with "motivate."

Common misspelling(s) of motivated

• motiviated

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - motivere, ligge til grund for, skabe interesse for

Nederlands (Dutch)
motiveren

Français (French)
v. tr. - motiver, encourager

Deutsch (German)
v. - motivieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - παρακινώ, παρέχω κίνητρο

Italiano (Italian)
motivare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - motivar

Русский (Russian)
мотивировать, побуждать

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - motivar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - motivera, vara drivfjädern bakom, skapa intresse hos

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
给...动机, 激发, 刺激

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 給...動機, 激發, 刺激

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - ~에게 동기 부여를 하다, 흥미를 느끼게 하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 動機を与える, 刺激する, …する気にさせる, 動機となる, 誘導する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يحث, يشجع, يحفز‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮הניע, המריץ, דחף‬

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