# ambition

Pronunciation: say "am-BISH-uhn" /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/

## Noun

1. An eager, sometimes excessive desire for success, power, honor, or fame, and to distinguish oneself from other people.
   - Simple: A strong wish to gain success, power, fame, or honor and to stand out from others.
   - _Political ambition drove him to run for higher office year after year._
   - _Her ambition for public recognition shaped every choice she made._
2. A personal quality resembling motivation: the inner drive to achieve, not necessarily directed at any single goal.
   - Simple: The drive to work hard and do well, even without one clear goal.
   - _Ambition is what separates those who coast from those who keep improving._
   - _Years of routine work had never dimmed her ambition._
3. A specific aim or goal that someone ardently desires to attain.
   - Simple: A thing you really want to achieve or have one day.
   - _Climbing Everest remained the one ambition he never abandoned._
   - _Her ambitions included publishing a novel and learning to sail._
4. A desire for another person to gain distinction, honor, power, or fame.
   - Simple: A wish for someone else to gain success, power, fame, or honor.
   - _Parental ambition for the eldest son often overshadowed the younger children's wishes._
   - _Her ambition for her protégé exceeded any she held for herself._

## Verb

5. To eagerly seek after something; to covet a desired object or position.
   - Simple: To want something very much and try hard to get it.
   - _He ambitioned a place among the nation's great statesmen._
   - _Courtiers ambition the favor of the king above all else._

## Noun

6. The act of going about to solicit votes or favor in order to obtain an office or other coveted object: essentially canvassing. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The act of going around to ask people for support to win a public office.

## Origin

This word comes through Middle English ambicioun and Old French ambition from Latin ambitiō, meaning 'a striving for favor'. It literally meant 'a going around', from ambiō ('I go around, solicit votes'), referring especially to candidates for office in Rome going about to gather votes.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ambition (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).