Definitions for motivate
ˈmoʊ təˌveɪtmo·ti·vate

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. motivate, actuate, propel, move, prompt, inciteverb

   give an incentive for action

   "This moved me to sacrifice my career"

WiktionaryRate this definition:2.7 / 3 votes

1. motivateverb

   To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage.

2. motivateverb

   To animate; to propel; to cause to take action

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. motivate

   Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often held that different mental states compete with each other and that only the strongest state determines behavior. This means that we can be motivated to do something without actually doing it. The paradigmatic mental state providing motivation is desire. But various other states, such as beliefs about what one ought to do or intentions, may also provide motivation. Motivation is derived from the word 'motive', which denotes a person's needs, desires, wants, or urges. It is the process of motivating individuals to take action in order to achieve a goal. The psychological elements fueling people's behavior in the context of job goals might include a desire for money. Various competing theories have been proposed concerning the content of motivational states. They are known as content theories and aim to describe what goals usually or always motivate people. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the ERG theory, for example, posit that humans have certain needs, which are responsible for motivation. Some of these needs, like for food and water, are more basic than other needs, such as for respect from others. On this view, the higher needs can only provide motivation once the lower needs have been fulfilled. Behaviorist theories try to explain behavior solely in terms of the relation between the situation and external, observable behavior without explicit reference to conscious mental states. Motivation may be either intrinsic, if the activity is desired because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, or extrinsic, if the agent's goal is an external reward distinct from the activity itself. It has been argued that intrinsic motivation has more beneficial outcomes than extrinsic motivation. Motivational states can also be categorized according to whether the agent is fully aware of why he acts the way he does or not, referred to as conscious and unconscious motivation. Motivation is closely related to practical rationality. A central idea in this field is that we should be motivated to perform an action if we believe that we should perform it. Failing to fulfill this requirement results in cases of irrationality, known as akrasia or weakness of the will, in which there is a discrepancy between our beliefs about what we should do and our actions. Research on motivation has been employed in various fields. In the field of business, a central question concerns work motivation, for example, what measures an employer can use to ensure that his employees are motivated. Motivation is also of particular interest to educational psychologists because of its crucial role in student learning. Specific interest has been given to the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in this field.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. motivate

   Motivate means to provide someone with a reason or incentive to do something. It involves stimulating someone's interest, enthusiasm, or determination to achieve a goal or accomplish a task. This could be done through encouragement, reward, recognition, or by creating a conducive environment for achievement.

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. motivate

   To inspire passion, energy, enthusiasm, direction, democracy, teamwork or what is accurate and specific in the moment to ensure peace, optimum health, human rights, animal rights, right to life and shared prosperity for all

   She did motivate her colleagues with the sense of unity, inclusion, passion and love.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on March 20, 2020  

British National Corpus

1. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'motivate' in Verbs Frequency: #996

How to pronounce motivate?

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 motivate in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of motivate in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of motivate in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of motivate in a Sentence

1. Randy Shaw:

   You don't need a declaration of emergency to arrest drug dealers on a corner but if that's what it takes to motivate everyone to move forward, great, all this is encouraging. It's obviously positive that it continues to bring attention to the crisis … but we want to see results.

2. Kenneth Hartley Blanchard:

   Spouses often point out each other's deficiencies. Instead, we should be each other's motivator. My husband touches my spirit, and I try my best to motivate him, too.

3. Alex Gares:

   My staff thought I was a little bit crazy, trying to make some of those dishes from the local restaurants with these local ingredients, with pretty much the same staff, I have had to work out how to motivate them, how to inspire them and let them know what I want to do with these local ingredients, that it is important to showcase the real Thai food experience.

4. Sandeep Aggarwal:

   3 phrases to motivate for 1 cause i.e. Entrepreneurship: 1) Time & Tide wait for none 2) Fortune follows brave, 3) Trying is better than regretting

5. Kristi Noem:

   I would say that we've just seen the media overstep and be untruthful for years, it's gotten extremely bad since 2020 when the virus came to the United States. I think we've seen the media be used and used fear to motivate people and to promote an agenda.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=motivate
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Motivate
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivate
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com