incentive vs motive

incentive

noun
  • Something that motivates, rouses, or encourages. 

  • A bonus or reward, often monetary, to work harder. 

adj
  • Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulating. 

  • Serving to kindle or set on fire. 

motive

noun
  • An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action. 

  • A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated. 

  • A motif. 

  • Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour. 

adj
  • Relating to motion and/or to its cause 

  • Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move 

verb
  • To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move. 

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