motivate
Americanverb (used with object)
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motivates,
present (3rd person singular)
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motivated,
past participle, past
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motivating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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motivatornoun
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demotivateverb (used with object)
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remotivateverb (used with object)
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nonmotivatedadjective
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unmotivatedadjective
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unmotivatingadjective
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well-motivatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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motivatesimple
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motivatessimple
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have motivatedperfect
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has motivatedperfect
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am motivatingprogressive
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are motivatingprogressive
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is motivatingprogressive
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have been motivatingperfect progressive
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has been motivatingperfect progressive
Past
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motivatedsimple
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had motivatedperfect
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was motivatingprogressive
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were motivatingprogressive
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had been motivatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of motivate
Explanation
To give someone the incentive to act in a certain way is to motivate that person. If you give your dad a food-processor for his birthday, you might motivate him to help out with the cooking. The verb motivate means to prompt or incite. By giving speeches on college campuses across the country, John F. Kennedy motivated a lot of young people to join the Peace Corps in the early 1960s. People are not always motivated in positive ways, however. When a crime is described as racially motivated, it means the perpetrators picked their victim because of the color of his skin.
Vocabulary lists containing motivate
List 5
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Mother's Day Words: What Mothers Do
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jesse Mecham wants to motivate you about money the way fitness gurus get you up off the couch to train for a 5K.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
If you want to motivate quarterback Chris Fields III, doubt his skills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
“The product that would motivate someone to move from ICE to an EV hasn’t existed until R2,” Scaringe said, referring to an acronym for cars with internal combustion engines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Instead of Gods like Poseidon and Zeus playing an integral role in the story, they are left as unseen forces that motivate the characters’ actions.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Dell tried to think of things to motivate her, or at the very least ease her distress, but so far, he had been a failure.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
This link between thinking and doing serves a clear function – it motivates us to get the necessities for life.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
“Princess Mononoke” proves that sometimes losing too much motivates us to help nature to regain some ground.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Those were the words Contepomi used to describe how Messi's greatness as an athlete motivates his side.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
A happy homeowner, Umansky holds, is the ultimate goal in his line of work, and the satisfaction that comes from helping clients is what motivates him to remain active as a real estate agent.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
I often wonder what motivates other scythes to do so.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, had himself claimed to be the target of a "racially motivated" campaign.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
But what may have most motivated her to condemn Wiener was that it was an opportunity to condemn Wiener.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2026
Her team’s stories explore how companies approach protecting their systems, data and intellectual property from financially motivated hackers and those sponsored by nation states.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Without a political force that clearly represents the opposition on the ballot, fewer people may be motivated to go to the polls.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
“I’d love to keep working with debut directors. After the recent films I’ve done and seeing ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms,’ it’s really motivating seeing what they can do.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
But financial concerns weren't the only motivating factor, LeadingAge's Erin Huppert said.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Notably, the show didn’t hook viewers with sex or other salacious material but, rather, plausible portrayals of greed and motivating vindictiveness.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
“It’s never too late” can start to feel exhausting, rather than motivating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Barack and I belonged to the same gym, run by a jovial and motivating athletic trainer named Cornell McClellan.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
