Motive or motif may refer to:
In a creative work:
- Motif (music), a perceivable or salient recurring fragment or succession of notes
- Motif (narrative), any recurring element in a story that has symbolic significance
- Motif (visual arts), a recurrent theme or pattern
- Motif (textile arts), a recurring element or fragment that, when joined together, creates a larger work
- Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of why the piece moves and how it supports the fulfillment of the problem stipulation
In mathematics:
In biochemistry:
- Sequence motif, a sequence pattern of nucleotides in a DNA sequence or amino acids in a protein
- Structural motif, a pattern in a protein structure formed by the spatial arrangement of amino acids
- A repeating pattern of elements in a crystal structure
Relating to intent:
In music:
Others:
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