motive

Meanings

Noun

• An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting.
• An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.
• A limb or other bodily organ that can move.
• Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.
• A motif.
• A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.

Verb

• To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

Adjective

• Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move
• Relating to motion and/or to its cause

Related

Similar words

• (creative works) motif

Origin

• From Middle English motif, from Anglo-Norman motif, Middle French motif, and their source, Late Latin motivum, neuter of motivus.