incentivenoun [ C or U ]
uk/ɪnˈsen.tɪv/us/ɪnˈsen.t̬ɪv/C2 something that encourages a person to do something:
Tax incentives have been very effective in encouraging people to save and invest more of their income.
[ + to infinitive ] There is little incentive for people to leave their cars at home when public transport remains so expensive.
Bonus payments provide an incentive to work harder.
More examples
- Indexation of pay rises to productivity will give people an incentive to work harder.
- The incentive to sell more is large - and it plainly works.
- The management have introduced a productivity incentive scheme for members of staff.
- Tax incentives have been offered to attract industry to the region.
- The new law provides incentives for businesses to invest in recycling equipment.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Attracting and tempting
- affinity
- allure
- arrest
- attract
- attraction
- charm
- charm offensive
- charm the pants off sb idiom
- counterattraction
- crowd-puller
- cute
- glitter
- magnet
- pulling power
- reel
- reel sb/sth in
- seduce
- seduction
- seductive
- spell
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