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Ambitious vs Ambition - What's the difference?

ambitious | ambition |

Ambition is a related term of ambitious.



As an adjective ambitious

is possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction.

As a noun ambition is

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.

As a verb ambition is

to seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

ambitious

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction.
  • * 1891 , , "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"
    • As I grew richer I grew more ambitious , took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.
  • Strongly desirous—followed by "of" or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something.
  • Springing from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring.
  • Hard to achieve.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
    • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme

    Usage notes

    * Said of people, projects, plans, goals, etc.

    Derived terms

    * ambitiously * ambitiousness * overambitious

    Related terms

    * ambition

    References

    * * * * * " ambitious" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " ambitious" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * " ambitious" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary , (Oxford University Press, 2007)

    ambition

    English

    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.

    Quotations

    (English Citations of "ambition")

    Related terms

    * ambience * ambient * ambit * ambitious * ambitionist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
    • Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. — Trumbull.

    External links

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