incentive

See also: Incentive and incentivé

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin incentīvus (“that strikes up or sets the tune”), from incinō (“to strike up”), from in- (“in, on”) + canō (“to sing”). The formation appears to have been influenced by incendō (“to set on fire”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/
    • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛntɪv
  • Hyphenation: in‧cen‧tive

Noun

incentive (plural incentives)

  1. 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.
  2. A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder.
    Management offered the sales team a $500 incentive for each car sold.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → German: Incentive

Translations

Adjective

incentive (comparative more incentive, superlative most incentive)

  1. Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating.
    • 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], OCLC 1114833197:
      Competency is of all other proportions the most incentive to industry.
  2. Serving to kindle or set on fire.

Further reading
  • 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

Latin

Adjective

incentīve

  1. vocative masculine singular of incentīvus

Portuguese

Verb

incentive

  1. inflection of incentivar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

incentive

  1. inflection of incentivar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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