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Motive vs Desire - What's the difference?

motive | desire | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between motive and desire

is that motive is an idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting while desire is someone or something wished for.

As verbs the difference between motive and desire

is that motive is to prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move while desire is to want; to wish for earnestly.

As an adjective motive

is causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power.

motive

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting.
  • *, III.2.1.ii:
  • *:there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive .
  • An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.
  • * 1947 , (Malcolm Lowry), Under the Volcano :
    • Many of them at first seemed kind to him, but it turned out their motives were not entirely altruistic.
  • (obsolete, rare) A limb or other bodily organ that can move.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (legal) Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.
    • What would his motive be for burning down the cottage?
    No-one could understand why she had hidden the shovel; her motives were obscure at best.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1931, author=
    • , chapter=10/6, title= Death Walks in Eastrepps , passage=“Why should Eldridge commit murder?
  • (architecture, fine arts) A motif.
  • (music) A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.
    • If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive .

    Synonyms

    * (incentive ) motivation * (creative works ) motif

    Verb

  • To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

    • Synonyms

    * motivate

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power.
  • * 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus , Folio Society 2007, p. 195:
    • In the motive parts of animals may be discovered mutuall proportions; not only in those of Quadrupeds, but in the thigh-bone, legge, foot-bone, and claws of Birds.
  • Relating to motion and/or to its cause

    • Synonyms

    * moving * (relating to motion) motional

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    desire

    English

    Verb

    (desir)
  • To want; to wish for earnestly.
  • * Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24
    • Neither shall any man desire thy land.
  • * Tennyson
    • Ye desire your child to live.
  • To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XIII:
    • And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
  • *
    • , title=The Mirror and the Lamp , chapter=2 citation , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired .}}
  • To want emotionally or sexually.
  • To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28
    • Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?
  • * Shakespeare
    • Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.
  • To require; to demand; to claim.
  • * Spenser
    • A doleful case desires a doleful song.
  • To miss; to regret.
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (countable) Someone or something wished for.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}
  • (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
  • (uncountable) Motivation.
  • (uncountable) The feeling of desire.

    • Synonyms

    * (one or thing wished for) wanna, want-to * (motivation) wanna, want-to

    See also

    * velleity

    Related terms

    * desirable * desirous

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * English control verbs