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Incentive Dictionary Definition Incentive Defined Yourdictionaryyourdictionary

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incentive

This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.


noun

something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity.

adjective

inciting, as to action; stimulating; provocative.

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Origin of incentive

1400–50; late Middle English <Late Latin incentīvus provocative, Latin: setting the tune, equivalent to incent(us) (past participle of incinere to play (an instrument, tunes); in-in-2 + -cinere, combining form of canere to sing) + -īvus-ive

synonym study for incentive

OTHER WORDS FROM incentive

in·cen·tive·ly, adverb coun·ter·in·cen·tive, noun non·in·cen·tive, adjective pre·in·cen·tive, noun

su·per·in·cen·tive, noun, adjective

Words nearby incentive

incense cedar, incensed, incense tree, incensory, incenter, incentive, incentive pay, incentive travel, incentivize, incept, inception

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use incentive in a sentence

  • China's reliance on foreign semiconductors is both a major incentive for and hinderance to achieving that goal.

  • In their 2005 best-selling book Freakonomics, two authors explained how economics are a powerful incentive on human behavior.

  • Smaller chains and independent theaters will also be reopening, but discounts and other incentives are scarcer.

  • They argue that the incentives CEOs face have not changed, so their behavior won't change.

  • Excerpts of a preliminary legal review of the purchase, leaked to NBC 7, contend that by acting as a middleman in a major real estate transaction, Cisterra didn't have an incentive to look closely at the building's true condition.

  • Given the potential for a cyber tit-for-tat to escalate, Obama has even more incentive to find a diplomatic solution.

  • In addition, because House Democrats were cut out of the negotiations over the bill, they don't feel any incentive to play ball.

  • As it stands, candidates do not have much of an incentive to come out in favor of same-sex marriage.

  • Until scholars and collectors stop buying, antiquities dealers have no incentive to stop selling.

  • As long as there are states willing to negotiate payments with groups like ISIS, there will be a financial incentive to kidnap.

  • Several desertions were now reported from the troops, a hostility to discipline rather than cowardice being the incentive.

  • Above all, we had the perpetual incentive of gardening to keep our eyes toward the future.

  • And to thwart Mrs. Errington would alone have been a powerful incentive with old Max.

  • But with the 250 apprehension of the Ideal and of the Divine law, three things follow, incentive to progress.

  • What a successful man, of marked force of character, has done, may be an incentive and an encouragement to others.

British Dictionary definitions for incentive


noun

a motivating influence; stimulus

  1. an additional payment made to employees as a means of increasing production
  2. (as modifier) an incentive scheme

adjective

serving to incite to action

Derived forms of incentive

incentively, adverb

Word Origin for incentive

C15: from Late Latin incentīvus (adj), from Latin: striking up, setting the tune, from incinere to sing, from in- ² + canere to sing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Incentive Dictionary Definition Incentive Defined Yourdictionaryyourdictionary

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/incentive