Motivate
verbTo give someone a reason or incentive to act, or to stimulate interest and effort.
How to spell motivate
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce motivate
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does motivate mean?
- verbTo give someone a reason or incentive to act, or to stimulate interest and effort.
Motivate in a sentence
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A clear bonus structure can motivate the sales team to work harder.
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Good teachers know how to motivate students who have lost interest.
Where does motivate come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word traces back to the Latin movere, meaning 'to move', which gave rise to the medieval Latin adjective motivus, 'serving to move' or 'causing motion'. From this came the noun 'motive', a thing that moves a person to act, which English adopted through Old French in the late Middle Ages. The verb 'motivate' is a later formation, appearing in English around the early nineteenth century, built by adding the familiar verb suffix '-ate' to that same 'motive' root. Its meaning stayed close to the original idea of movement: to motivate someone is literally to set them in motion towards a goal. The same movere root powers a whole family of relatives, including 'move', 'motion', 'emotion', and 'motor', which is a useful clue to the single 't' and the 'mot' opening of the spelling.
How the word is built
- motiv- (from Latin motivus: causing movement)
- -ate (verb-forming suffix)
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