Thesaurus: motive

Related headwords

Definitions

1. n. That which moves; a mover.
2. n. That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choise, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement; object.
3. n. The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed. See also Leading motive, under Leading.
4. n. That which produces conception, invention, or creation in the mind of the artist in undertaking his subject; the guiding or controlling idea manifested in a work of art, or any part of one.
5. a. Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power.
6. v. t. To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.
7. adj. causing or able to cause motion
8. adj. impelling to action
9. n. the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior
10. n. a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music
11. n. a design or figure that consists of recurring shapes or colors, as in architecture or decoration