Inspire: Definition, Examples, and How to Use It

Meaning 1：fill with creative urge (inspire)

inspire 🔊

/ɪnˈspaɪər/

vt.

To fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something, often creative.

Inspire creative urge with glowing light bulb icon above head

fill with creative urge 🔊

➕

/fɪl wɪð kriˈeɪtɪv ɜːrdʒ/

vt.

To stimulate someone mentally or emotionally, often leading to creative or enthusiastic action.

📁 Category：Behaviors & Actions 🔖 Level：intermediate

📘 Details & Usage

📖 Root Explanation

From Latin 'inspirare' (in- 'into' + spirare 'breathe'). Originally meant 'breathe into'.

💡 Mnemonic

Think 'in' + 'spire' — breathe in a spire of fresh ideas, lifting your creativity upward.

📖 Example

The teacher's passion for science inspired her students to build their own robots. 🔊 The teacher's passion for science inspired her students to build their own robots.

🔗 Collocations

inspire confidence – to make someone feel confident

inspire creativity – to encourage creative thinking

inspire someone to do something – to motivate someone to take a specific action

🔄 Synonyms

motivate (vt.) – to provide a reason or incentive for action

encourage (vt.) – to give support, confidence, or hope to someone

stimulate (vt.) – to raise levels of physiological or nervous activity in the body or mind

🚫 Antonyms

discourage (vt.) – to cause someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm

deter (vt.) – to discourage someone from doing something

🌱 Derivatives

inspiration (n.) – a feeling of having been inspired; a creative stimulus

inspiring (adj.) – having the quality of inspiring

📖 Cultural Story

In Latin, 'inspirare' meant 'to breathe into,' used in religious contexts for divine infusion. By the 16th century, it shifted to creative or motivational influence, as in 'inspired by art.'