# ambition
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English ambicioun, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambiō (“I go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/
** Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

ambition (countable and uncountable, plural ambitions)
* (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
    My daughter, Johanna, wants to be a firefighter very much. She has a lot of ambition.
** a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, chapter VII, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, […]: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon […], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, →OCLC, page 270:The third part of practice hath divers branches, but one principal root in these our times, which is the vast and overspreading ambition and usurpation of the see of Rome; […]
** 1756, [Edmund Burke], A Vindication of Natural Society: Or, A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind from Every Species of Artificial Society. […], London: […] M. Cooper […], →OCLC, page 20:One is aſtoniſhed hovv ſuch a ſmall ſpot could furniſh Men ſufficient to ſacrifice to the pitiful Ambition of poſſeſſing five or ſix thouſand more Acres, or tvvo or three more Villages: […]
* (countable) An object of an ardent desire.
    My ambition is to own a helicopter.
* A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
* (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
* (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
** 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 22:I on th' other ſide / Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, […]

#### Derived terms

* ambitionate
* ambitionize
* ambitionless
* nonambition
* overambition
* unambition
* underambition

#### Related terms

* ambience
* ambient
* ambit
* ambitious
* ambitionist

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

ambition (third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned)
* To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
** 1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus:Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.

### Further reading

* “ambition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “ambition”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

## Danish
### Noun

ambition c
* ambition

#### Related terms

* ambitiøs

### Further reading

* “ambition” in Den Danske Ordbog
* “ambition” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

## Finnish
### Noun

ambition
* genitive singular of ambitio

## French
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ambitiōnem.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɑ̃.bi.sjɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

ambition f (plural ambitions)
* ambition (feeling)

#### Derived terms

* ambitionner

#### Related terms

* ambitieux

### Further reading

* “ambition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Swedish
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

ambition c
* ambition

#### Declension

| | | nominative | genitive |
| singular | indefinite | ambition | ambitions |
| singular | definite | ambitionen | ambitionens |
| plural | indefinite | ambitioner | ambitioners |
| plural | definite | ambitionerna | ambitionernas |

#### Related terms

* ambitiös

### References

* ambition in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* ambition in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* ambition in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)