driven

adjective

driv·​en ˈdri-vən 

1

a

: having a compulsive or urgent quality

a driven sense of obligation

b

: determined to succeed : highly energetic and motivated

… a versatile yacht captained by a driven skipper who has won everything in the sport …

—Herb McCormick

Kinsey redoubled his efforts. If he had been driven before, now there was a manic quality to his work.

—David Halberstam

2

: propelled or motivated by something

—used in combination

results-driven

a character-driven drama

drivenness

ˈdri-vən-nəs 

noun

He was born two months premature and she has never stopped asking herself whether it was her drivenness, her refusal to rest, that caused it.

—Michele Magwood

Synonyms

• besetting
• compulsive
• impulsive
• obsessional
• obsessive

Examples of driven in a Sentence

They are driven, successful people.

a man with a driven need to be loved or liked by everyone

Recent Examples on the Web

By-the-book, officious, Lucy is extremely ambitious and driven, but hides those qualities behind an icy determination to do the right thing. —Denise Petski, Deadline, 3 July 2024

Robinson has been remembered as a driven young woman who had recently traveled to Jamaica and was studying criminal justice at Milwaukee Area Technical College. —Sophie Carson, Journal Sentinel, 18 June 2024

This is a pulsing, driven, beat-heavy show, not chill or moody or spectral or dreamlike the way other Cirque du Soleil spectacles have been. —Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 14 Apr. 2024

On Thursday at David Geffen Hall, Jaap van Zweden, the music director of the New York Philharmonic, conducted a lean, driven rendition of Mahler’s sprawling Second Symphony. —Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 7 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

see drive entry 1

First Known Use

1797, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing driven

• (as) pure as the driven snow
• driven bonkers
• menu-driven