Definitions for motivation
ˌmoʊ təˈveɪ ʃənmo·ti·va·tion

Princeton's WordNet(2.59 / 12 votes)Rate this definition:

1. motivation, motive, neednoun

   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"

2. motivationnoun

   the condition of being motivated

   "his motivation was at a high level"

3. motivation, motivatingnoun

   the act of motivating; providing incentive

GCIDE(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. motivationnoun

   The act or process of motivating.

2. motivationnoun

   The goal or mental image of a goal that creates a motivation; as, the image of a peaceful world is a powerful motivation for only a rare few individuals.

3. motivationnoun

   The mental process that arouses an organism to action; as, a large part of a teacher's job is to give students the motivation to learn on their own.

Wiktionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. motivationnoun

   Willingness of action especially in behavior

   Etymology: motive, from the verb moveo, + -ation

2. motivationnoun

   The action of motivating.

   Etymology: motive, from the verb moveo, + -ation

3. motivationnoun

   Something which motivates.

   Etymology: motive, from the verb moveo, + -ation

4. motivationnoun

   An incentive or reason for doing something.

   Etymology: motive, from the verb moveo, + -ation

5. motivationnoun

   a research rating that measures how the rational and emotional elements of a commercial affect consumer intention to consider, visit, or buy something.

   The motivation scores showed that 65% of people wanted to visit our website to learn more about the offer after watching the commercial.

   Etymology: motive, from the verb moveo, + -ation

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Motivation

   Motivation is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to act towards a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal-directed behaviors. It can be considered a driving force; a psychological one that compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal. For example, hunger is a motivation that elicits a desire to eat. Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action. Motivation has been shown to have roots in physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social areas. Motivation may be rooted in a basic impulse to optimize well-being, minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure. It can also originate from specific physical needs such as eating, sleeping or resting, and sex. Motivation is an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner. "It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day." These inner conditions such as wishes, desires, goals, activate to move in a particular direction in behavior.

U.S. National Library of Medicine(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Motivation

   Those factors which cause an organism to behave or act in either a goal-seeking or satisfying manner. They may be influenced by physiological drives or by external stimuli.

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. motivation

   The reason for a specific action or purpose.

   Their motivation was simple as they were very loving, kind and caring and choose a united society and world where everyone benefits from life.

   Submitted by MaryC on March 1, 2020  

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

1. motivation

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

Matched Categories

1. • Act
   • Condition

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'motivation' in Nouns Frequency: #2038

How to pronounce motivation?

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 motivation in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of motivation in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of motivation in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of motivation in a Sentence

1. Lee Zeldin:

   They need to find all the motivation inside of them to get down to this site and to check this one specific location, which is located near where they looked a little over 45 years ago, but they didn't actually check this site.

2. RVM:

   A problem-free life does not exist. If your life has no problems, you are not truly alive, and that’s a Big problem! #Inspiration #Motivation #RVM

3. Mark Roberts:

   Unfortunately none of the eggs were viable, so with the Andeans in full parenting mode we gave them Chilean chicks to bring up as their own, it’s great motivation and enriching for the birds.

4. Dwight D. Eisenhower:

   Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

5. Ibrahim Kalin:

   An issue like the presidential system can't be decided without the nation. If the mechanism requires a referendum, then we will hold a referendum, the executive presidency is not a question of our president's personal future. He has already entered the history books. The basic motivation is to make the system in Turkey as effective as possible.

Images & Illustrations of motivation

Popularity rank by frequency of use