incentive
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Something that motivates, rouses.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnsehntivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈsɛntɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.
adjective
Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating.
Serving to kindle or set on fire.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
Used this way, incentive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use incentive
- “The company offered a bonus as an incentive for employees to work harder.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An option granted to corporate executives if the company achieves certain financial goals.
A formal scheme for inducing someone (as employees) to do something.
A formal scheme for inducing someone (as employees) to do something.
An option granted to corporate executives if the company achieves certain financial goals.
Remuneration offered to a salesperson for exceeding some predetermined sales goal.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: something that motivates or rouses or or encourages
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.