incentive
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Medieval Latin incentivus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinere (“to strike up”), from in (“in, on”) + canere (“to sing”). The formation appears to have been influenced by incendere ' to set on fire'.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
incentive (plural incentives)
- Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages.
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- 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; […].
- I have no incentive to do housework right now.
- A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.
- Management offered the sales team a $500 incentive for each car sold.
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- → German: Incentive
Translations[edit]
something that motivates
cash bonus
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Adjective[edit]
incentive (comparative more incentive, superlative most incentive)
- Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating.
- 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety
- Competency is of all other proportions the most incentive to industry.
- 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety
- Serving to kindle or set on fire.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book 6”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Part incentive reed / Provide, pernicious with one touch of fire.
Further reading[edit]
- incentive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- incentive in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams[edit]
Latin[edit]
Adjective[edit]
incentīve
Portuguese[edit]
Verb[edit]
incentive
- first-person singular present subjunctive of incentivar
- third-person singular present subjunctive of incentivar
- first-person singular imperative of incentivar
- third-person singular imperative of incentivar
Spanish[edit]
Verb[edit]
incentive
- First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of incentivar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of incentivar.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of incentivar.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂n-
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛntɪv
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English adjectives
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin adjective forms
- Portuguese non-lemma forms
- Portuguese verb forms
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms
- Spanish forms of verbs ending in -ar