Definitions for ambition
æmˈbɪʃ ənam·bi·tion

Princeton's WordNet(3.50 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. ambition, aspiration, dreamnoun

   a cherished desire

   "his ambition is to own his own business"

2. ambition, ambitiousnessverb

   a strong drive for success

3. ambitionverb

   have as one's ambition

Wiktionary(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. ambitionnoun

   Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.

2. ambitionnoun

   An object of an ardent desire.

   My ambition is to own a helicopter.

3. ambitionnoun

   A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.

4. ambitionnoun

   A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.

5. ambitionverb

   To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

   Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. uE000106558uE001 Trumbull.

6. Etymology: From ambicion, from ambition, from ambitio, from ambio. See ambient, issue.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Ambitionnoun

   The desire of something higher than is possessed at present.

   Etymology: ambitio, Lat.

   1. The desire of preferment or honour.

   Who would think, without having such a mind as Antiphilus, that so great goodness could not have bound gratefulness? and so high advancement not have satisfied his ambition? Philip Sidney.

   2. The desire of any thing great or excellent.

   The quick’ning power would be, and so would rest;
   The sense would not be only, but be well:
   But wit’s ambition longeth to the best,
   For it desires in endless bliss to dwell. John Davies.

   Urge them, while their souls
   Are capable of this ambition;
   Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath
   Of soft petitions, pity and remorse,
   Cool and congeal again to what it was. William Shakespeare, K. John.

   3. It is used with to before a verb, and of before a noun.

   I had a very early ambition to recommend my self to your Lordship’s patronage. Addison.

   There was an ambition of wit, and an affectation of gayety. Alexander Pope, Letters. Preface to his.

Webster Dictionary(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Ambitionnoun

   the act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing

2. Ambitionnoun

   an eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something

3. Ambitionverb

   to seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet

4. Etymology: [F. ambition, L. ambitio a going around, especially of candidates for office is Rome, to solicit votes (hence, desire for office or honor), fr. ambire to go around. See Ambient, Issue.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Ambition

   am-bish′un, n. the desire of power, honour, fame, excellence.—n. Ambi′tionist (Carlyle), an ambitious man.—adj. Ambi′tious, full of ambition (with of, formerly for): strongly desirous of anything—esp. power: aspiring: indicating ambition: showy or pretentious.—adv. Ambi′tiously.—n. Ambi′tiousness. [Fr.—L. ambition-em, the going about—that is, the canvassing for votes practised by candidates for office in Rome—ambi, about, and īre, itum, to go.]

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. ambition

   In a military sense, signifies a desire of greater posts or honors. Every person in the army or navy ought to have a spirit of emulation to arrive at the very summit of the profession by his personal merit.

Suggested Resources(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. ambition

   Song lyrics by ambition -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by ambition on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Desire

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'ambition' in Nouns Frequency: #1648

How to pronounce ambition?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say ambition in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of ambition in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of ambition in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of ambition in a Sentence

1. Robert Jan van de Kraats:

   We are looking at opportunities in the professional space, so people with a masters or bachelor's education level, we have an ambition to be come a bigger player there. So we are constantly scanning the world.

2. Olivia Nuzzi:

   If you think about it for long enough, any story about the presidency is a story about the meaning of life and, in that sense, a story about death. If you stare at it hard enough, ambition can look like running hopelessly away from mortality.

3. Jason Feer:

   There's going to be a very significant jump in their volumes this year, they clearly have ambition.

4. Anna Garlin Spencer:

   The failure of women to produce genius of the first rank in most of the supreme forms of human effort has been used to block the way of all women of talent and ambition for intellectual achievement in a manner that would be amusingly absurd were it not so monstrously unjust and socially harmful.

5. John Larsen:

   I would say a watered down CEPP may be worse than no CEPP, as long as the clean energy tax credit package is in at the scale and ambition people have been talking about for months, you're already going to have increased acceleration of clean energy in America.

Popularity rank by frequency of use