Meaning & use
monetary incentive
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Meaning
nouncountablebusiness
A payment or cash reward offered to encourage someone to act in a certain way, such as working harder or buying something.
Grammar: Usually countable: a monetary incentive, several monetary incentives.
Patterns
- a monetary incentive to do something
- a monetary incentive for something
- offer someone a monetary incentive
The company gave staff a monetary incentive to finish the project early.
Without a monetary incentive, few homeowners would install solar panels.
A small monetary incentive can encourage customers to recycle their bottles.
Word forms
| plural | monetary incentives |
|---|
Common combinations
- offer a monetary incentive
- The city offered a monetary incentive to people who gave up their old cars.
- provide a monetary incentive
- The scheme provides a monetary incentive to hire local workers.
- strong monetary incentive
- A strong monetary incentive can change how people behave.
- financial and monetary incentives
- The report compares tax cuts and other monetary incentives.
- without a monetary incentive
- Few people would volunteer without a monetary incentive.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bonus
- A bonus is a specific extra payment on top of salary, while a monetary incentive is any money reward meant to change behavior.
- financial incentive
- Financial incentive is nearly identical but slightly broader, since it can include tax breaks as well as cash.
- cash reward
- Cash reward sounds more casual and is paid after something has been done, whereas an incentive is offered beforehand.
- inducement
- Inducement is more formal and can suggest something improper, like a bribe, which monetary incentive does not.
Opposites
Word family
- incentive noun
- something that encourages action
- incentivize verb
- to give someone a reason to act
- monetary adjective
- relating to money
- money noun
- what is used to pay for things
Commonly confused: monetary incentive or monetary?
monetary incentive vs monetary
Monetary means relating to money; it is not the same as monetarily, which is an adverb, or momentary, which means lasting a very short time.
Practice
Which is a monetary incentive?
Choose one answer.
Only a cash payment is paid in money. The other options are rewards, but they are not monetary.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “monetary incentive”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.