motive🔊

(obsolete) 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. +

(obsolete, rare) A limb or other bodily organ that can move.

(law) Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

(architecture, fine arts) A motif.

(music) A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.

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

Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move +

Relating to motion and/or to its cause +