Word.ws English Dictionary

motivated

motivated is the simple past and past participle of motivate.

Meaning of motivate

Verb

motivate (third-person singular simple present motivates, present participle motivating, simple past and past participle motivated)

  1. (transitive) To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
    • The weekly staff meeting was meant to motivate employees.
  2. (transitive) To animate; to propel; to cause to take action.
    • He was motivated purely by self-interest.
    Synonyms:
    drive, move, push
    Antonyms:
    demotivate, halt, stop

Adjective

motivated (comparative more motivated, superlative most motivated)

  1. Enthusiastic, especially about striving toward a goal.
    • We're looking for a highly motivated individual who will fit into our fast-paced corporate culture.
    • It seems reasonable to assume that academically able students are more motivated toward academic activities than those less able, and that students from higher socioeconomic levels are more motivated toward school than those from lower socioeconomic levels.2001, Norman E. Wallen, Jack R. Fraenkel, Educational Research: A Guide to the Process, page 177

Forms of motivated

comparativemore motivated
superlativemost motivated

Words formed from motivated

Phrases with motivated

Questions about motivated

What does motivated mean?
Motivated means enthusiastic, especially about striving toward a goal.
What is motivated the simple past and past participle of?
Motivated is the simple past and past participle of motivate.
What part of speech is motivated?
Motivated is an adjective.

Words near motivated in the dictionary

  1. motions of confidence
  2. motions of no confidence
  3. motionwork
  4. motivatable
  5. motivate
  6. motivated
  7. motivated reasoning
  8. motivated reasonings
  9. motivates
  10. motivating
  11. motivation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motivated (page history and authors); motivate (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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Cite this entry: “motivated.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/motivated. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.