Word.ws English Dictionary

motive powers

motive powers is the plural of motive power.

Meaning of motive power

Noun

motive power (usually uncountable, plural motive powers)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes, usually) The power that enables something to move.
    • Using electricity as motive power for railroads will do away with fuel trains, tenders, coal handling, water, and all that.
    Synonyms:
    locomotion, motivity
  2. (collective, usually) The locomotives or other powered units that operate on a railway.
    • While at first in the U.S.A. it may have been a matter of high-pressure salesmanship—and it has undoubtely been the irresistible enterprise of the General Motors Corporation, through its Electro-Motive subsidiary, that has set in motion this amazingly rapid transformation of American railway motive...1950 January, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, pages 12–13

Questions about motive powers

What is motive powers the plural of?
Motive powers is the plural of motive power.

Words near motive powers in the dictionary

  1. motivatory
  2. motive
  3. motive power
  4. motive power depot
  5. motive power depots
  6. motive powers
  7. motived
  8. motiveless
  9. motivelessly
  10. motivelessness
  11. motiveness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motive powers (page history and authors); motive power (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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