Meanings
- not comparableWithout a motive.
This seems to have been a motiveless crime: no money was stolen, and nobody had cause to hate the victim.
1 more example
He was interested in their genuine, yet refined simplicity; and, moreover, the most worn and worldly natures vindicate their humanity by occasional preferences and motiveless likings.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 167
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveoccurring without motivation or provocation
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Anglo-Normanmotif
- Middle Frenchmotif
- Proto-Indo-European*m(y)ewh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*m(y)owh₁éyeti
- Proto-Italic*moweō
- Latinmoveō
- Latinmōtus
- Late Latinmōtīvum
- Middle Englishmotif
- Englishmotive
- Proto-Indo-European*lewh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*lewHs-
- Proto-Germanic*leusaną
- Proto-Germanic*lausaz
- Englishmotiveless
Cite this entry
motiveless. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motiveless
“motiveless.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motiveless. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “motiveless,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/motiveless.
Source: motiveless on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.