ambition vs desire

ambition

noun
  • An object of an ardent desire. 

  • Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people. 

  • A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal. 

  • A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things. 

verb
  • To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. 

desire

noun
  • The feeling of desiring; an eager longing for something. 

  • Someone or something wished for. 

  • Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual. 

  • Motivation. 

verb
  • To require; to demand; to claim. 

  • To miss; to regret. 

  • To want emotionally or sexually. 

  • To want; to wish for earnestly. 

  • To express a wish for; to entreat; to request. 

  • To put a request to (someone); to entreat. 

How often have the words ambition and desire occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )