Incite

//ɪnˈsaɪt// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To call into action. transitive

    "The judge was told by the accused that his friends had incited him to commit the crime."

  2. 2
    provoke or stir up wordnet
  3. 3
    To entreat an act. transitive
  4. 4
    urge on; cause to act wordnet
  5. 5
    To instigate a specific incident. transitive
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    give an incentive for action wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
actuateegg oninstigatemotivatemotivatemove

Example

More examples

"The speaker tried to incite the people to rebellion."

Etymology

From Middle French inciter, from Latin incitō (“to set in motion, hasten, urge, incite”), from in (“in, on”) + citō (“to set in motion, urge”), frequentative of cieō (“to rouse, excite, call”).

Related phrases

stir up

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.