incentivize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Etymology
Origin of incentivize
An Americanism dating back to 1965–70
Explanation
To incentivize is to provide a reward or motivation for some action. Your teacher might incentivize the class by offering jelly beans to everyone who aces the next math quiz. Incentivize was first used in around 1970 as business jargon, and some still consider it to be annoying corporate lingo. It’s a legitimate word, though, made into a verb by adding -ize to incentive, which means "something that motivates or encourages." You might incentivize your dog to sit by giving her a treat every time she does it, or incentivize your brother to do your chores by offering him half your allowance as payment.
Vocabulary lists containing incentivize
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:
“For me, this is a way to incentivize to slow people down,” McKinnor said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
“However, the costs of returning to war remain high and incentivize the U.S. and Iran to stick to the ceasefire,” the international economist and currency strategist adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Education Department officials framed the new policy as a way to incentivize and reward borrowers who make regular on-time payments and to improve the overall health of the student-loan portfolio.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee pointed out that Seagate has stopped providing discounts to incentivize customers to adopt next-generation products.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
Some argue a headlong commercial race will inevitably incentivize companies to cut corners on safety.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Shoot days for TV dramas were down 6.4% to 732 days this past quarter, with just over 38% of those days coming from incentivized projects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Unlike Anthropic and OpenAI, which Kharazian said are incentivized to make users spend as much as possible on tokens, Cursor allows users to toggle between smarter but more expensive models and cheaper alternatives.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 19, 2026
Those headlines attracted the kind of crowd more interested in drama than the fights themselves, which in turn incentivized more drama: a spiral that eventually changed the feel of the entire sport.
From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2026
By waiting until after June 1, the Eagles will save millions this year, which means that even if they had a trade in place they were strongly incentivized to wait patiently.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Influencers are often incentivized to amplify sensational rumors, which can attract followers and increase earnings on revenue-sharing platforms like X.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
She supports expanding clean transit options, incentivizing employers to adopt flexible work policies to reduce commute emissions, deploying smart traffic technology and giving small businesses tiered time lines and tax credits to transition.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
But it isn’t clear that six-month reporting would “move the needle significantly in terms of incentivizing managers to think more long term,” according to Srini Krishnamurthy, an associate professor of finance at N.C.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
By doing these things you are incentivizing him to behave more badly in the future.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2026
Higher aluminum prices outside of China are also incentivizing producers there to export more, which mitigates some of the global supply risks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
Companies: The Federal Reserve prepared rule changes incentivizing banks to originate mortgages.
From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026
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.
