Sample Sentences for
motive
(editor-reviewed)

motive as in:  What is her motive?

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    Authorities asked that journalist not jump to conclusions while awaiting an investigation of the motive for the shooting.
    motive = reason (for doing something)
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    Snowden said his sole motive was to inform the public.
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    The murderer had to have a motive.  (source)
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    Mr. Jamison allowed Papa and Uncle Hammer several moments to search for a motive behind his masklike face.  (source)
    motive = reason (for doing something)
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    THE FROZEN MOTIVES OF RUDY STEINER  (source)
    MOTIVES = reasons for doing something
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    For Dewey, himself a former sheriff of Finney County (from 1947 to 1955) and, prior to that, a Special Agent of the F.B.I. (between 1940 and 1945 he had served in New Orleans, in San Antonio, in Denver, in Miami, and in San Francisco), was professionally qualified to cope with even as intricate an affair as the apparently motiveless, all but clueless Clutter murders.†  (source)
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    There's motive, and Lamar's had other run-ins wif tha law.  (source)
    motive = a reason (for doing something)
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    I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain.  (source)
    motives = reasons for doing something
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    The crime, clueless and apparently motiveless, had taken place Saturday night, December19, at the Walker home, on a cattle-raising ranch not far from Tallahassee.†  (source)
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    The motive for the murders, for example — she puts it down to wild jealousy on the part of Grace, who envied Nancy her possession of Mr. Kinnear, and lechery on the part of McDermott, who was promised a quid pro quo for his services as butcher, in the form of Grace's favours.  (source)
    motive = reason (for doing something)
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    It's an honest answer, but one that still keeps his motives hidden.  (source)
    motives = reasons for doing things
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    Poor Hetty's vision of consequences, at no time more than a narrow fantastic calculation of her own probable pleasures and pains, was now quite shut out by reckless irritation under present suffering, and she was ready for one of those convulsive, motiveless actions by which wretched men and women leap from a temporary sorrow into a lifelong misery.†  (source)
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    Now tell me why we cling to power. What is our motive?  (source)
    motive = reason (for doing something)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

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He needed something to spring the spear forward, some way to make it move faster than the fish, some motive force.  (source)
motive = something that causes motion in an inanimate object
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