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motivate

verb

Simple meaning

To give someone a reason or desire to do something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mohtuhvayt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmoʊtəveɪt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.

  2. transitive

    To animate; to propel; to cause to take action.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.

Used this way, motivate 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

helped motivate

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • motivatedadjectiveInflected form

    Provided with a motive or given incentive for action.

  • motivatingnounInflected form

    The act of motivating.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • motivatornounPerson or profession

    A positive motivational influence.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to provide someone with an incentive to do something

promptpropel

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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.