say it: MOH-tur
motor is a noun, adjective and verb meaning "machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion". It carries 5 recorded senses.
machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion
a nonspecific agent that imparts motion
“happiness is the aim of all men and the motor of all action”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for motor come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.