motivated

adjective

mo·​ti·​vat·​ed ˈmō-tə-ˌvā-təd 

: provided with a motive : having an incentive or a strong desire to do well or succeed in some pursuit

a motivated employee

Courses are being offered on college campuses for those who are highly motivated but who without such help often drop out and are lost to society and themselves.

—Carol Kort

In a sporting context, for example, athletes who consistently seem to play hard and rarely concede defeat are often described as highly motivated or "competitive" by the media.

—Robert C. Eklund

Examples of motivated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The owner of the kayak rental company, Lee Beale, told Fox News Digital that he was motivated to speak up after learning that the witness wasn't cooperating. —Rebecca Rosenberg, Fox News, 17 Nov. 2023

Trump has blasted the district attorney's case as being politically motivated. —Olivia Rubin, ABC News, 16 Nov. 2023

Americans are less motivated at work this year compared to last, data from the ADP Research Institute has revealed, with employeeengagement at is lowest level in more than a year and a majority of workers not highly engaged, harming productivity. —Barnaby Lashbrooke, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023

The Mann Act indictment was clearly politically motivated, and Chaplin was exonerated. —Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023

State lawmakers must also strengthen government ethics laws to prevent abuses of science for financial gain and require state agencies to implement safeguards against politically motivated censorship of scientific research and data. —Jacob Carter, STAT, 10 Nov. 2023

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied wrongdoing while characterizing the case as politically motivated. —Robert Legare, CBS News, 6 Nov. 2023

Palestinians and rights groups say innocent people, including political figures, are being swept up by a broad detention campaign that is politically motivated and aimed at stifling dissent. —Omar Abdel-Baqui, WSJ, 5 Nov. 2023

Several leaders of the capital region’s governing party have also been arrested and detained without bail on various charges, including money laundering, moves that some observers have described as politically motivated. —Hari Kumar, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1903, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing motivated

• self-motivated

• self-motivated