the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way: I don't understand what her motivation was for quitting her job.Synonyms: motive, inspiration, inducement, cause, impetus.
2.
the state or condition of being motivated: We know that these students have strong motivation to learn.
3.
something that motivates; inducement; incentive: Clearly, the company's long-term motivation is profit.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.