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Ego vs Ambition - What's the difference?

ego | ambition |

As nouns the difference between ego and ambition

is that ego is (the self)the self, especially with a sense of self-importance while 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.

ego

English

Noun

(en noun) (wikipedia ego)
  • (senseid)the self, especially with a sense of self-importance
  • * 1998 ,
  • When every thought absorbs your attention completely, when you are so identified with the voice in your head and the emotions that accompany it that you lose yourself in every thought and every emotion, then you are totally identified with form and therefore in the grip of ego'. ' Ego is a conglomeration of recurring thought forms and conditioned mental-emotional patterns that are invested with a sense of I, a sense of self.
  • (psychology, Freudian) the most central part of the mind, which mediates with one's surroundings
  • * 1954 , Calvin S. Hall, “A Primer of Freudian Psychology”
  • In the well adjusted person the ego is the executive of the personality and is governed by the reality principle.

    Derived terms

    * alter ego * (l) * egoism * egoist * egoistic * egoistical * egoistically * (l) * egotism * egotist * egotistic * egotistical * egotistically * ego trip * empirical ego * pure ego * superego * transcendental ego

    See also

    * id * superego

    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.

    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.