motivate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- demotivate verb (used with object)
- motivator noun
- nonmotivated adjective
- remotivate verb (used with object)
- unmotivated adjective
- unmotivating adjective
- well-motivated adjective
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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NAEP Test Words
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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.
Though instead of speaking to thousands of young people to motivate them into getting involved, the crowd featured mostly older people.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2026
“This doesn’t motivate them to work,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026
“You would think that would motivate people,” said Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations with the National Association of Tax Professionals.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026
He says the hope it engenders can not only help people cope emotionally with a cancer diagnosis but can even motivate them to seek treatment.
From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026
I had spent as much time with him as I could, trying to motivate him to get well and eat his hay, even offering it to him with my feet.
From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling
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.
