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motive has 6 distinct synonyms spread across 5 of its 5 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior
“we did not understand his motivation”
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for motive come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.
impelling to action
“it may well be that ethical language has primarily a motivative function”