motiv

noun

The verdict

“motiv” is uncommon French (frequency #56,761 among 5,038 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,761
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Motif, ce qui motive un acte, cause.

Corpus desk

Index FR-motiv · motiv · French

motiv · rank #56,761 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,761
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH mota

Nearest frequency peer: mota (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « motiv »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « motiv » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for motiv
PropertyValue
Headwordmotiv
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
Letters5
Frequency rank#56,761
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « motiv » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).motivtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « mota » (#56,760), « mouillent » (#56,762), « montrais » (#56,759). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « motiv » est au #56,761. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

motiv is uncommon French at frequency #56,761 among 5,038 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for motiv, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, 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 explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is motiv, spelled M-O-T-I-V.

Definition

  1. 1
    Motif, ce qui motive un acte, cause.
  2. 2
    Motif de décoration.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how motiv appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Jako vandalismus se označuje svévolné poškozování a ničení veřejného i soukromého majetku či podobných statků, které nepřináší pachateli žádné materiální obohacení a pro které pachatel zpravidla nemá žádný motiv.
  2. barevné motivy a veselé vzory.

Synonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "motiv"?
"motiv" is spelled M-O-T-I-V.
What does "motiv" mean?
As a noun, "motiv" means: Motif, ce qui motive un acte, cause.
What language does "motiv" come from?
"motiv" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "motiv", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list