Noun

(en-noun)

(uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.

My son, John, wants to be a firefighter very much. He has a lot of ambition .

* Burke

the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres

(countable) An object of an ardent desire.

My ambition is to own a helicopter.

A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.

(uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.

(obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

* Milton

[I] used no ambition to commend my deeds.

Noun

(en noun)

The work involved in performing an activity; exertion.

* , chapter=23

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=June 22, author=Press Association, work=The Guardian

, title= Manchester United offer Park Ji-sung a new two-year contract , passage=The 30-year-old South Korean, who joined United in 2005, retired from international duty after last season's Asian Cup in an effort to prolong his club}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)

, title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.}}

An endeavour.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter

, volume=100, issue=2, page=87, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

A force acting on a body in the direction of its motion.

(Rankine)