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ambition.

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.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Received-Pronunciation/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Canada, General-American[ɛəmˈbɪʃ.n̩]Canada, General-American/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Australia

  1. 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.

    countable · uncountable
    My daughter, Johanna, wants to be a firefighter very much. She has a lot of ambition.

  2. An object of an ardent desire.

    countable
    My ambition is to own a helicopter.

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

    countable · uncountable

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

    uncountable

  5. The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts? Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰíder. Proto-Italic *amβi- Latin ambi- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti Proto-Italic *ejō Proto-Italic *eō Latin eō Latin ambiō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin ambitiōder. Old French ambitionbor. Middle English ambicioun English ambition From Middle English ambicioun, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambiō (“to go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue. By surface analysis, ambit + -ion.

verb/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Received-Pronunciation/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Canada, General-American[ɛəmˈbɪʃ.n̩]Canada, General-American/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/Australia

  1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂énts? Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰíder. Proto-Italic *amβi- Latin ambi- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti Proto-Italic *ejō Proto-Italic *eō Latin eō Latin ambiō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin ambitiōder. Old French ambitionbor. Middle English ambicioun English ambition From Middle English ambicioun, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambiō (“to go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue. By surface analysis, ambit + -ion.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.