Moti*va"tion

Motivate \Mo"ti*vate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {-vated}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {-vating}.] [From {Motive}, n.]
   To provide with a motive; to move; impel; induce; incite. --
   {Mo`ti*va"tion}, n. --William James.

   Syn: move, prompt, incite, induce impel, drive.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
    

motivation \motivation\ n.
   1. The act or process of motivating.
      [PJC]

   2. The mental process that arouses an organism to action; as,
      a large part of a teacher's job is to give students the
      motivation to learn on their own.

   Syn: motive, need.
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]

   3. The goal or mental image of a goal that creates a
      motivation[2]; as, the image of a peaceful world is a
      powerful motivation for only a rare few individuals.
      [PJC]
    

57 Moby Thesaurus words for "motivation":
      activity, actuation, animation, aptitude, aptness, brightness,
      catalyst, cleverness, direction, docility, dynamics, educability,
      facility, going, impetus, impressionability, impulse, incentive,
      incitation, incitement, influence, inner-direction, instigation,
      intelligence, kinematics, kinesipathy, kinesis, kinesitherapy,
      kinetics, malleability, mobilization, moldability, motion, move,
      movement, moving, other-direction, plasticity, pliability,
      prompting, quickness, readiness, receptivity, restlessness,
      running, spur, stimulant, stimulation, stir, stirring,
      susceptibility, teachability, teachableness, trainableness, unrest,
      velocity, willingness