Link Centre Dictionary

motivation

mo·ti·va·tion

UK/ˈməʊ.tɪ.veɪ.ʃən/ US/ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/ fairly common

noun

1.

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

  • “we did not understand his motivation”
  • “he acted with the best of motives”
Synonyms
2.

the condition of being motivated

  • “his motivation was at a high level”
3.

the act of motivating; providing incentive

Synonyms

Origin

From motive (verb) + -ation, probably after French motivation and German Motivation.

Phrases

  • extrinsic motivation
  • intrinsic motivation
  • letter of motivation

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.