ambition

English

Etymology

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 (“I go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

Noun

ambition (countable and uncountable, plural ambitions)

1. (uncountable, countable) 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.

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

   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, chapter VII, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, : The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon , volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 270:

     The third part of practice hath divers branches, but one principal root in these our times, which is the vast and overspreading ambition and usurpation of the see of Rome; […]

   • 1756, [Edmund Burke], A Vindication of Natural Society: Or, A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind from Every Species of Artificial Society. , London: M. Cooper , →OCLC, page 20:

     One is aſtoniſhed hovv ſuch a ſmall ſpot could furniſh Men ſufficient to ſacrifice to the pitiful Ambition of poſſeſſing five or ſix thouſand more Acres, or tvvo or three more Villages: […]

2. (countable) An object of an ardent desire.

   My ambition is to own a helicopter.

3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
4. (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
5. (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, .”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 22:

     I on th' other ſide / Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, […]

Derived terms

Related terms

• ambience
• ambient
• ambit
• ambitious
• ambitionist

Translations

Verb

ambition (third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned)

1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
   • 1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus:

     Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.

Further reading

• “ambition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ambition”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Danish

Noun

ambition c

1. ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiøs

Further reading

• “ambition” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ambition” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Finnish

Noun

ambition

1. genitive singular of ambitio

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ambitiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.bi.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ambition f (plural ambitions)

1. ambition (feeling)

Derived terms

• ambitionner

Related terms

• ambitieux

Further reading

• “ambition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ambition c

1. ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiös

References

• ambition in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ambition in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• ambition in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)