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:
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
If you want to motivate quarterback Chris Fields III, doubt his skills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
“The product that would motivate someone to move from ICE to an EV hasn’t existed until R2,” Scaringe said, referring to an acronym for cars with internal combustion engines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Instead of Gods like Poseidon and Zeus playing an integral role in the story, they are left as unseen forces that motivate the characters’ actions.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
Or was it somehow his own fault, his own inability to motivate the team?
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
She says it is terrifying how often these attacks are happening to women, but is deeply sceptical of what the anti-immigration groups say motivates them to take to the streets.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 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
A happy homeowner, Umansky holds, is the ultimate goal in his line of work, and the satisfaction that comes from helping clients is what motivates him to remain active as a real estate agent.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
What motivates you to advocate so strongly for these working-class Georgians and other underserved voters, in the way that you have?
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 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
Anderson says much of his work involving clay deposits was originally motivated by the search for life on other planets.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Arday, who became Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, had himself claimed to be the target of a "racially motivated" campaign.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
But what may have most motivated her to condemn Wiener was that it was an opportunity to condemn Wiener.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2026
Her team’s stories explore how companies approach protecting their systems, data and intellectual property from financially motivated hackers and those sponsored by nation states.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Out of all the kids, you’ve always been the most like me, Mavis. We’re motivated to be the best. We want to achieve greatness. You understand, don’t you?”
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
"Knowing what I'd left and what I was trying to become was very motivating," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Notably, the show didn’t hook viewers with sex or other salacious material but, rather, plausible portrayals of greed and motivating vindictiveness.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
“It’s never too late” can start to feel exhausting, rather than motivating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Seeing the professionalism he brings every day to practice, on and off the court, while traveling and when showing up to tournaments, it rubs off on you and that’s really motivating to see.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
“I’m not sure it’s love that’s motivating him, though.”
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
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.
