motivation
noun
the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way.
motivations
-
pluralof motivation.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
Your adviser should be clear about their motivations, and be able to outline them on paper.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, said she’d welcome that but was skeptical of the agency’s motivations.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
Secessionist movements regularly have "economic motivations," but typically those are married to a linguistic or nationalist component, Griffiths said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
I don’t pretend to know the motivations of Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and other tech titans who last weekend announced their view that the development of artificial intelligence requires government oversight to avert global catastrophe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Tomkins believed that faces—even the faces of horses—held valuable clues to inner emotions and motivations.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
