motivate
/ˈməʊ.tɪ.veɪt/US/ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/
motivate verb: to provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
Verb
motivate (third-person singular simple present motivates, present participle motivating, simple past and past participle motivated)
- To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
- The weekly staff meeting was meant to motivate employees.
- Armor-piercing shells were heading up the shell hoists, but this procedure took a few minutes, allowing the battered American flagship to reply in kind, the gunners somewhat motivated to set new records for the rate of fire as the cruiser raked the larger ship from stem to stern in response.2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 17:51 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 17 Oct 2022
- Synonyms:
- drive, spur, abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting, bring about
- Antonyms:
- demotivate, discourage, dissuade
- To animate; to propel; to cause to take action.
- He was motivated purely by self-interest.
- Steam-motivated pumps are used in manufacturing.
- Antonyms:
- demotivate, halt, stop
motivate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
motivate in Hindi
- to encourage
- प्रेरित करना prerit karnā
motivate in Tamil
- ஊக்கமளி, செயல் நோக்கமளி, ஊக்குவி, செயல்புரியத் தூண்டு, ஆர்வமூட்டல்
motivate in Urdu
- راغب کرنا
motivate in Bengali
- অনুপ্রাণিত করা, উৎসাহিত করা
More languagesFewer languages
- motivate in Telugu
- ప్రేరేపించు prērēpiñcu
- motivate in Malayalam
- പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുക, ചലന ശക്തി, ചലനശക്തി, പ്രചോദനമായ
- motivate in Kannada
- ಹುರಿದುಂಬಿಸು, ಹುರದುಂಬು, ಬೆನ್ನುತಟ್ಟು
- motivate in Arabic
- حَثَّ ḥaṯṯa
- motivate in Persian
- برانگیختن barângixtan
- motivate in Vietnamese
- khích lệ, động viên, khuyến khích
Examples of motivate in a sentence
- Grinding lessons into students' heads does not motivate them to learn.
- Can you tell us how you will motivate your students to learn?
- Debt can motivate or act as a disciplinary force for executives to achieve organizational efficiency.
Synonyms of motivate
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of motivate
| third-person singular present | motivates |
|---|---|
| present participle | motivating |
| past participle | motivated |
| past | motivated |
Origin of motivate
From motive + -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French motiver.
Words formed from motivate
Questions about motivate
- What does motivate mean?
- Motivate means to provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
- What is motivate in Hindi?
- Motivate in Hindi is प्रेरित करना (prerit karnā). See Motivate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is motivate?
- Motivate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce motivate?
- Motivate is pronounced /ˈməʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of motivate?
- The past tense of motivate is motivated.
Words near motivate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: motivate (page history and authors); motivate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motivate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Motivate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motivate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motivate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-motivate.wav.
Cite this entry: “motivate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/motivate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.