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:
We should then train adults to motivate, coach and hold students accountable for their progress.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Ferguson famously used the story to motivate Team Europe's players at the 2014 Ryder Cup.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
If you want to motivate quarterback Chris Fields III, doubt his skills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
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
Scythe Goddard sure knows how to motivate someone to do their best.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
What motivates him instead is finding what’s hot before everyone else, whether it’s film ideas or food.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
“And if it hurts, hopefully it motivates those who are in power to make sure that when these things come to light, they put a stop to it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
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
Her relationship frequently crosses boundaries, but Maddie permits it because the attention makes her feel good and motivates her disorder.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
“You have to think of who your character is, who her friends are, if she has a good relationship with her parents or not, what motivates her,” she says.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
It was the sort of flavor I could reproduce if sufficiently motivated.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Lee’s film is motivated less by anger and more by curiosity, compassion and a general confusion, as no one quite knows how to behave or feel or just be.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
What Huberman’s worldview proposes is that motivated people can take small actions to relieve themselves of these endemic problems of middle age.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
He is fit, motivated and a real handful, which is another reason I can't see past a Leeds victory.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Now, in their dressing area, they had put up signs to keep themselves motivated: “Remember the Morning After!” and “Go Get Brougham’s Babies!”
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Hoang says a motivating factor for her film was to confront cultural norms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
We don’t know what was motivating the solo juror who wanted to send Clancy to jail rather than to a psychiatric hospital.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
If a client wants to buy, he tries to understand what’s motivating the desire.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Koch, Inc. encourages this by motivating employees through incentives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
The reggaeton music coming from the pisa y corre is both incredibly irritating and unbelievably catchy and motivating as I run.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
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.
