What does motivate mean?
Word: Motivate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Motivate means to make someone want to do something, or to work hard at it.
Synonyms: spur
How do you spell motivate?
Syllables: mo - ti - vate
Tricky part: The middle vowel is said weakly, so students often write an e or an a there. It is an i.
Watch out for: motevate, motavate
Memory tip: Your motive is your reason for acting, and motivate keeps the same i after mot, never an e.
Motivate in a sentence
Example 1: Gold stars on the chart motivate the younger children to read every night.
Example 2: What motivated you to start learning the drums?
Example 3: Our principal tries hard to motivate every house before Sports Day.
Fun Fact
Motivate, motive and even motor all go back to the Latin verb movere, meaning to move.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tvaetimo
a) moderate
b) mitigate
c) meditate
d) motivate
Show answer
d) motivate. The jumble holds a v, and only motivate uses one; the other three need a d, a g or an r that is not there.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
motivate
a) encourage
b) stimulate
c) discourage
d) inspire
Show answer
c) discourage. Inspire, encourage and stimulate all push a person on, while discourage takes away the wish to try.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Before the relay, the sports teacher found a way to motivait every tired runner.
a) motivait
b) relay
c) runner
d) tired
Show answer
a) motivait. Many verbs like create and educate end in -ate, and this one does too.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) persistance
b) determinasion
c) enthusiasim
d) motivate
Show answer
d) motivate. Enthusiasm ends in -asm, determination in -tion, and persistence in -ence.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A teacher who motivates her class is most likely to ____.
a) mark every test very strictly
b) send pupils home a little early
c) keep the classroom windows shut
d) make pupils eager to keep trying
Show answer
d) make pupils eager to keep trying
2. Riya practised every evening because the thought of a medal motivated her. For Riya, the medal was ____.
a) something she gave to a friend
b) something she had lost at school
c) something that pushed her on
d) something that slowed her down
Show answer
c) something that pushed her on
