motivate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
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.
“Gavin is the candidate who can motivate both the left and the center,” Hastings told The Times, referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
From Los Angeles Times • May 10, 2026
Nintendo is releasing games that are exclusive to the Switch 2, which could motivate people to buy the device.
From Barron's • May 8, 2026
The film’s greatest mystery may be how an actress as gifted as Tanaka failed to motivate a leading man as naturally charismatic as Nakadai.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026
Solid first-quarter results “could motivate some bullish capitulation” for those investors, said Krishna and his team.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 28, 2026
Still, I stood and started my jumping jacks, following Mitch’s morning warm-up routine even though he wasn’t there to motivate me.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
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.
