Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The power of moving or causing motion.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The power of moving; form of motion or locomotion.
- noun In thermodynamics, a term proposed by Lord Kelvin for the available energy of a system.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The power of moving or producing motion.
- noun rare The quality of being influenced by motives.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
power orability tomove
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the power or ability to move
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It is the mind in which this historical principle, this motivity which is not reason, is brought in contact with the opposing and controlling element as it had not been before.
The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835
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Thinking and motivity the primary ideas peculiar to spirit.
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At present we must confine ourselves to saying that soul is the source of these phenomena and is characterized by them, viz. by the powers of self-nutrition, sensation, thinking, and motivity.
On the Soul 2002
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As the economic attraction of petroleum fuels disappears, their motivity - the power to cause motion - is being sought from other sources.
Chapter 4 1983
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I knew from Carnot that this _must_ be true (and it _is_ true; only now I call it 'motivity,' to avoid clashing with Joule's 'mechanical value').
Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 Various
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At present we must confine ourselves to saying that soul is the source of these phenomena and is characterized by them, viz. by the powers of self-nutrition, sensation, thinking, and motivity.
ON THE SOUL Aristotle 1935
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Is it connected with the phenomena of exteriorization of sensitivity or motivity?
The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal Hereward Carrington 1919
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If the phenomena of exteriorization of _motivity_ be true (the phenomena produced by Eusapia Palladino, for example) then we have here nervous energy or "fluid" existing beyond the periphery of the body -- that is, in space, detached from the nerves.
The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal Hereward Carrington 1919
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These prophets relied upon the presence of a certain motivity, from which a definite response could be evoked by an appeal which they were peculiarly able to make; but though "they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening oblation," there was none that regarded.
The Approach to Philosophy Ralph Barton Perry 1916
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They were appealing to a fictitious motivity, one not grounded in "the nature of things."
The Approach to Philosophy Ralph Barton Perry 1916
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