Meaning

• An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting.

• An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.

• A limb or other bodily organ that can move.

• Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

  "No-one could understand why she had hidden the shovel; her motives were obscure at best."

• A motif.

• A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.

  "If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive."

Meaning

• To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

Meaning

• Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move

  "a motive argument"

• Relating to motion and/or to its cause