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motive
has definitions from the fields of music,fine art
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[ noun ] 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
Synonyms Examples "we did not understand his motivation" "he acted with the best of motives" Used in print (The Rev. John A. O'Brien, "Let's Take Birth Control...)What determines the morality , they state , is not the means used , but the motive . The general board declared : `` Most_of the Protestant churches hold contraception and periodic continence to be morally right when the motives are right . The general Protestant conviction is that motives , rather than methods , form the primary moral issue , provided the methods are limited to the prevention of conception '' . (Peter J. White, "Report on Laos"...)Practically all the people of Laos , he explained - about two million of them - are rice farmers , and the means and motives of modern war are as strange to them as clocks and steel plows . (David Boroff, "Jewish Teen-Age Culture"...)The vocational motive is the dominant one for boys , while Jewish girls attend college for social reasons and to become culturally developed . |
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[ adjective ] causing or able to cause motion
Synonyms Examples "a motive force" "motive power" "motor energy" Used in print (Gibson Winter, The Suburban Captivity of the...)Religious faith can be considered a necessary condition of membership in a congregation , since the decision to join a worshiping group requires some motive force , but faith is not a sufficient condition for joining ; the presence of other members of similar social and economic level is the sufficient condition . Related terms |
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[ adjective ] impelling to action
Synonyms Examples "it may well be that ethical language has primarily a motivative function"- Arthur Pap "motive pleas" "motivating arguments" Related terms |
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