Motive

//ˈməʊtɪv// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting. obsolete

    "there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive."

  2. 2
    the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior wordnet
  3. 3
    An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.

    "Many of them at first seemed kind to him, but it turned out their motives were not entirely altruistic."

  4. 4
    a design or figure that consists of recurring shapes or colors, as in architecture or decoration wordnet
  5. 5
    A limb or other bodily organ that can move. obsolete, rare

    "every joint and motive of her body"

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music wordnet
  2. 7
    Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

    "What would his motive be for burning down the cottage?"

  3. 8
    Alternative form of motif. alt-of, alternative

    "If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive."

  4. 9
    A party, gathering, or get-together. British
  5. 10
    One's plans for the day or night. British

    "What's the motive for tonight, lads?"

Verb
  1. 1
    To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move. transitive
Adjective
  1. 1
    Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move not-comparable

    "a motive argument"

  2. 2
    Relating to motion and/or to its cause not-comparable

    "Debussy's melody is fractional, fragmentary. But at the core all his music is melodic and melody is its main motive force."

Adjective
  1. 1
    impelling to action wordnet
  2. 2
    causing or able to cause motion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
causativemotifmotivatingmotivationmotivationmoving

Example

More examples

"You may rest assured; I have no ulterior motive in making this donation."

Etymology

From Middle English motif, from Anglo-Norman motif, Middle French motif, and their source, Late Latin motivum (“motive, moving cause”), neuter of motivus.

Related phrases

appeal to motiveby-motiveleading motivemotive powermotive power depotprofit motiveulterior motivemurder storiesmurder urgeprove murderunderlying reason

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