Motive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Motive or motif are terms that turn up in many different forms in literature and other creative works, as well as other fields such as business and law.

A motif may be a recurring fragment, theme or pattern in a creative work:

• Motif (music), a perceivable or salient recurring fragment or succession of notes.
• Motif (narrative), any recurring element in a story that has symbolic significance.
• Motif (visual arts), a recurrent theme or pattern.
• Motif (chess composition), element of a move in the consideration why the piece moves and how it supports the fulfillment of the problem stipulation.

In mathematics:

• Motive (algebraic geometry).

In biochemistry:

• Sequence motif, a sequence pattern of nucleotides in a DNA sequence or amino acids in a protein.
• Structural motif, a pattern in a protein structure formed by the spatial arrangement of amino acids.
• A repeating pattern of elements in a crystal structure.

A motive may relate to intent:

• Motive (law), in criminal law.
• Base motive, in psychology. See also motivation.

In music:

• Motive (album), 1990 album by band Red Box
• Yamaha Motif, a music workstation.
• The Motive, a punk band.

Others:

• Motif (widget toolkit), a graphical user interface toolkit used in software development
• Aston Motif, a range of character generators manufactured by Aston Broadcast Systems.
• Motive, Inc., a software manufacturer.
• Motif of harmful sensation, physical or mental damage that a person suffers merely by experiencing what should normally be a benign sensation.