motive

An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an incitement to action.

A motif in art, literature, or music.

Causing or able to cause motion.

Causing an action.

To act on as a motive, or with the force of a motive; prompt; instigate.

Causing motion; having power to move some one or something; tending to produce motion.

Moving or impelling force in a figurative sense.

That which moves, as a locomotive; in railroading, the locomotives collectively of a railroad: as, the super-intendent of the motive power.

A mental state or force which induces an act of volition; a determining impulse: specifically, a desire for something; a gratification contemplated as the final cause of a certain action of the one desiring it.

The design or object one has in any action; intention; purpose; the ideal object of desire.