Meanings
present singular third person incents · participle present incenting · participle past incented · past incented
- UStransitiveTo provide an incentive to (a person or organization).
We need to incent people to innovate more.
4 more examples
We try to incent people to do it earlier, which levels the load.
2007 February 24, Damon Darlin, “At Intuit, What Comes After Taxes?”, in New York TimesHUD programs to incent owners to maintain affordable housing units have preserved over 3,500 projects with about 300,000 units.
2009 July 15, Shelley Moore Capito, Legislative Options for Preserving Federally- and State-assisted Affordable Housing and Preventing Displacement of Low-income, Elderly, and Disabled Tenants, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, page 4incent investors to manage assets with a long-term perspective
2010 June 24, Al Gore, David Blood, “Toward Sustainable Capitalism”, in Wall Street JournalWhether it’s a sense of companionship or the promise of elicit conversations that border on phone sex, users are incented to grow closer and closer to their avatar (and, ultimately, to buy a physical body for them, something Jackie hinted at on a couple of occasions).
2017 August 17, Ry Crist, “Dawn of the sexbots”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), CNET - UStransitiveTo provide an incentive for (something).
We need to incent more innovation.
1 more example
DUNCAN: The more we can reward excellence, the more we can incent excellence, the more we can get our best teachers to work in those hard to staff schools
2009 January 13, Arne Duncan, “Duncan Lays Out Positions in Confirmation Hearing”, in WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
Origin
Back-formation from incentive. Clipping of incentivize
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech motivovat, stimulovat
- motivovatto provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- stimulovatto provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- poskytnout pobídkuto provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
German Anreize schaffen
- Anreize schaffento provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
Russian стимули́ровать, побужда́ть
- стимули́ровать (stimulírovatʹ)to provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- побужда́ть (pobuždátʹ)to provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- побуди́ть (pobudítʹ)to provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- поощря́ть (pooščrjátʹ)to provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
- поощри́ть (pooščrítʹ)to provide an incentive to (a person or organization)
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with incent
Anagrams
Cite this entry
incent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incent
“incent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incent. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “incent,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/incent.
Source: incent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.