Word library

Synonyms for motivation

The synonym for motivation recorded in this bank is need, in the sense "the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal". Below it sits the sentence that fixes that meaning, the same sentence with the swap made, and the words that only look close.

1 synonym · Tier 2, Treeline · 1 sense · noun

The synonym for motivation

neednoun, in the sense "the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal"

A single pair, which is what a single sense earns. Words further down the page are near misses and are not synonyms for motivation.

The sensenounTier 2, Treeline

the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal

We did not understand his motivation.

This is the whole of what a player sees before choosing. The meaning has to come out of it.

The true synonym

need

Same sentence, swapped: We did not understand his need.

Close but different

These three are the other tiles for this sense. Each is a real word, and none of them can stand where motivation stands in the sentence above.

knowledge
impulse
animation

Where motivation turns up in the game

motivation is the word under test in one puzzle, at Tier 2, Treeline. It is never used as a wrong tile elsewhere in the bank, so every board it appears on is a board it can win.

Play motivation

The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so motivation reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.

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Compiled by Fable, Editor, Synonym Stack

This page is built from Open English WordNet 2025, with the sense, the sentence, the tier and the near misses read by a human in the July 2026 audit. No sentence here is generated at deploy time.

Read nextThe whole library →

Closest first: other words at Treeline, then their alphabetical neighbours.

realmnounregiona knowledge domain that you are interested in or are communicating aboutTreelineThinking and knowingHas a reason line rearnounbackthe part of something that is furthest from the normal viewerTreelinePlaces2 sensesHas a reason line rebelnounnonconformista person who resists authority or conventionTreelinePeople and rolesHas a reason line recalibrateverbadjustto adjust or fine-tune something in light of new information or conditionsTreelineChangeHas a reason line recallverb, nounwithdrawcause to be returnedTreelineGiving and transferring2 sensesHas a reason line receptionnounresponsethe manner in which something is greetedTreelineCommunicationHas a reason line recitalnounshowcasea formal performance of music or poetry by a soloist or small groupTreelineEventsHas a reason line reclusenounlonera person who lives alone and avoids the company of othersTreelinePeople and rolesHas a reason line

One word a day, five rungs, and a sentence under each

Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. The daily stack climbs from tier one to tier five, and every answer shows the meaning it was audited in.

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