ulterior motive
"ulterior-motive" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ulterior motive” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An alternative or extrinsic reason for doing something, especially when concealed or when differing from the stated or apparent reason.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ulterior-motive · ulterior motive · English
ulterior motive · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ulterior motive |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ulterior motive” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ulterior motive is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An alternative or extrinsic reason for doing something, especially when concealed or when differing from the stated or apparent reason.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ulterior motive, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is ulterior motive, spelled U-L-T-E-R-I-O-R- -M-O-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1An alternative or extrinsic reason for doing something, especially when concealed or when differing from the stated or apparent reason.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ulterior motive appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There lurks no bribe in the smell and beauty of the flower. Its charm has no ulterior motive.
The poet is a man without a profit or any other kind of ulterior motive.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.