incentive
Syllables: in·cen·tive/ɪnˈsɛntɪv/
incentive noun: something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
Noun
incentive (plural incentives)
- Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
- I have no incentive to do housework right now.
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
- Synonyms:
- carrot
- A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.
- Management offered the sales team a $500 incentive for each car sold.
Adjective
incentive (comparative more incentive, superlative most incentive)
- Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating.
- Competency is of all other proportions the most incentive to industry.1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC
- Serving to kindle or set on fire.
- Part incentive reed / Provide, pernicious with one touch of fire.1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
incentive meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
incentive in Tamil
- ஊக்குவிப்பு, ஊக்கம், ஊக்கத்தொகை, ஊக்க ஊதியம், தூண்டுவிசை, ஊக்கம் அளிக்கும்
incentive in Urdu
- حوصلہ افزائی
incentive in Bengali
- উদ্দীপনা, অনুপ্রাণনা, উদ্দীপক বস্তু, উদ্দীপক, উত্সাহদায়ক
incentive in Telugu
- ప్రోత్సాహం
More languagesFewer languages
- incentive in Malayalam
- പ്രോത്സാഹന വേതനം, പ്രേരണ, പ്രോത്സാഹനം, പ്രചോദനം
- incentive in Kannada
- ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹ, ಪ್ರೇರಣೆ, ಉತ್ತೇಜನ, ಹೆಳೆ
- incentive in Punjabi
- ਭਾੜਾ bhāṛā
- incentive in Gujarati
- પ્રોત્સાહન
- incentive in Pashto
- بعث
- incentive in Indonesian
- insentif
- incentive in Persian
- مشوق mošavveq
- incentive in Thai
- สิ่งจูงใจ
Examples of incentive in a sentence
- If the government wants graduates to stay in the country, they should offer more incentives.
- One way to encourage your employees to work harder is by giving them incentives.
- Any efforts to reduce overimaging must find ways of addressing the underlying incentives behind defensive medicine.
Synonyms of incentive
Antonyms
Forms of incentive
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | incentives |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more incentive |
| superlative | most incentive |
Origin of incentive
From Medieval Latin incentīvus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinō (“to strike up”), from in- (“in, on”) + canō (“to sing”) + -ive. The formation appears to have been influenced by incendō (“to set on fire”).
Words formed from incentive
Words that rhyme with incentive
Questions about incentive
- What does incentive mean?
- Incentive means something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
- What is incentive in Tamil?
- Incentive in Tamil is ஊக்குவிப்பு, ஊக்கம், ஊக்கத்தொகை. See Incentive meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is incentive?
- Incentive can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce incentive?
- Incentive is pronounced /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/.
- What is the plural of incentive?
- The plural of incentive is incentives.
Words near incentive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incentive (page history and authors); incentive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incentive (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); incentive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incentive (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); incentive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incentive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਭਾੜਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); incentive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); بعث (Pashto) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incentive.wav.
Cite this entry: “incentive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incentive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.