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# motivation

«motivation» in Mova's school dictionary: **The wish or energy to do something and keep trying** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (motivation — uncountable; a motivation, motivations)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The wish or energy to do something and keep trying. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#m1)

2) A reason for doing something. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#m2)

3) (formal) Something that gives a reason or encourages action. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Used at school ("Where's your motivation today?"), in sport, in science about why animals behave as they do, and in stories about a character's reasons for acting. Phrases: "lack of motivation", "lose motivation", "a strong motivation", "the motivation behind".

### examples

- I lost my motivation to practise piano after the holidays. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x1)
- Winning the cup was a big motivation for the team. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x2)
- What was the villain's motivation for stealing the jewel? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x3)
- Our teacher gives us stickers for motivation. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x4)
- Hunger is a strong motivation for animals to hunt. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x5)
- She has lots of motivation; she practises every day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x6)
- The motivation behind the new rule was to keep everyone safe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/#x7)

### note

Usually uncountable ("lots of motivation", not "lots of motivations") when it means the wish to do something; countable when it means a particular reason. Verb: "motivate"; adjective: "motivated". In police stories, "motive" is the usual word for the reason for a crime.

### In the corpora

- [Seeing your coins pile up in a see-through jar helps keep you going; this push to keep going is called motivation.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/9-the-piggy-bank-and-a-jar-for-each-goal/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «motivation» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/motivation/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.