What's the difference between ambition and desire?

Ambition


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
  • (n.) An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something.
  • (v. t.) To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Jubilant Democrats are eyeing so-called “red states” such as Georgia and Utah and expanding their ambitions to take both the Senate and House .
  • (2) The award for nonfiction went to New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos for his book on modern China, Age of Ambition .
  • (3) "My great ambition is to be president of a golf club where I am playing," he teased .
  • (4) So far, there is little sign of similar hubris at the Human Brain Project, a far more complex undertaking, but perhaps for the moment Markram's ambition is precisely what is needed.
  • (5) Photograph: KHIZR KHAN This sombre, serene oasis overlooking the Potomac river might also prove the graveyard of Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US presidency.
  • (6) Britain’s troubled relationship with the EU has provided Boris Johnson with nothing but fun since he first made his name lampooning the federalist ambitions of Jacques Delors as the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent in the early 1990s .
  • (7) President Obama's ambitions for new nuclear reductions?
  • (8) As Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, said when he published the initial white paper back in 2010: “At its heart, universal credit has a simple ambition – to make work pay, even for the poorest.
  • (9) "The player [Suárez] is amazing and I love his quality, commitment and ambition to play," said Mourinho.
  • (10) Some … actually dropped to the low end of their ambition ranges, which have led small island states to ask, 'Why is this?'
  • (11) Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya said the “truth [of the Gospel] continues to be called into question in the Anglican communion” and warned against “the global ambitions of a secular culture”.
  • (12) As important, if not more so, as his ambition to make exams tougher is his hostility towards other measures of ability, such as course work and controlled assessments.
  • (13) And Bristol, I guess, is following on because it has an ambition to become something similar.” According to Key, Bristol’s congestion problems are only as bad as those of other UK cities, and it’s “streets ahead” on walking and cycling .
  • (14) The company recently announced its ambition to reach a valuation of $50bn, but it is unclear how much Uber is worth if it has to start picking up expenses it has up to now pushed on to the shoulders of its drivers.
  • (15) If the ambition set out by the world’s heads of state in New York is ever to be achieved, the global tax system needs more than just a sticking plaster.
  • (16) But concerns about a slowing economy, jobs, civil rights and a lack of progress in the Kurdish peace process appear to have combined with worries that Erdoğan could assume quasi-dictatorial powers to thwart the president’s ambitions.
  • (17) Ian Macfarlane signals frontbench ambition after defecting to Nationals Read more But the deputy leader of the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, pushed back at the criticism, saying it was not unprecedented for people to move between the Coalition parties and noted it was not as significant as ousting a prime minister.
  • (18) Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN and a former frontrunner to replace Clinton as state secretary, saw her political ambitions cut short after she suggested that the attack could have originated from a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim US-made film.
  • (19) In this context, it is hard not to wonder whether a scheme on the scale and ambition of Packington, located as it is in a sea of valuable central London real estate, could ever be replicated.
  • (20) For Davutoglu, this ambition entails a "comprehensive" approach embracing enhanced economic, cultural and social ties as well as political and security relations.

Desire


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To long for; to wish for earnestly; to covet.
  • (v. t.) To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
  • (v. t.) To require; to demand; to claim.
  • (v. t.) To miss; to regret.
  • (v. t.) The natural longing that is excited by the enjoyment or the thought of any good, and impels to action or effort its continuance or possession; an eager wish to obtain or enjoy.
  • (v. t.) An expressed wish; a request; petition.
  • (v. t.) Anything which is desired; an object of longing.
  • (v. t.) Excessive or morbid longing; lust; appetite.
  • (v. t.) Grief; regret.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I'm not sure Tolstoy ever worked out how he actually felt about love and desire, or how he should feel about it.
  • (2) Further improvement of results will be possible by early operation, a desirable objective.
  • (3) This has been accomplished by insertion of a desired gene into a pre-existing immortal cell or by immortalizing primary cells.
  • (4) The light intensity profile for any desired cell can be examined in "real time", even during acceleration of the rotor.
  • (5) Still, even as unknowable as this decision may be for him, as any decision is, really, he is far more qualified to understand his desires and goals that would inform that decision than anyone else is.
  • (6) It’s not just a matter of will or gumption or desire on my part.
  • (7) "The pattern of consumption is that among ebook readers there is a desire to pre-order, or get it quickly, so ebook sales are particularly high in the first few weeks," he said.
  • (8) Attention is drawn to the desirability of differentiating between supra- and sub-gingival calculus in the CPITN scoring system and to the excessive treatment requirements that arise from classifying everyone with calculus as requiring prophylaxis and scaling.
  • (9) Alternatively, the data presented herein strongly suggest that diets containing conventional quantities of fat, in which saturated fat is replaced by unsaturated fat and dietary cholesterol reduced, would result in the desired reductions to total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations without the adverse effects of increased postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations, increased fasting and postprandial total and very-low-density lipoprotein triglyceride concentrations, and decreased fasting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations.
  • (10) Combining drugs may only occasionally be advisable to supplement a desired effect or to attenuate an unwanted one.
  • (11) Five hundred sixty grandmultiparous women were interviewed as to their contraceptive awareness, desirability and use in the three major hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria, between October 1, 1980 and September, 1981.
  • (12) It will not be so low as to put off candidates from outside the corporation but will be substantially less than Thompson's £671,000 annual remuneration – in line with Patten's desire to clamp down on BBC executive pay, which he said had become a "toxic issue".
  • (13) The concept of increasing bone mass and decreasing expanded soft-tissue mass has application within the judgment of the surgeon coupled with the patient's desires.
  • (14) This new derivative could represent a desirable complementation to rhbFGF for the development of more stable pharmaceutical formulations in wound healing applications.
  • (15) These concepts of facial harmony and surgical alterations have been difficult to teach in a residency program, especially regarding preoperative evaluation and a clear idea of the desired surgical results.
  • (16) Subsequent efforts focused on achieving high levels of insecticidal activity while minimizing costs of synthesis and retaining desirable levels of selective toxicity.
  • (17) The reasons are often financial, but can also be a desire for a change of pace or new experiences.
  • (18) Noninvasive procedures (such as Holter monitoring or recording of late potentials) are desirable for screening purposes, whereas it would be acceptable to use more aggressive invasive techniques in certain subsets of patients.
  • (19) KAP studies have demonstrated differences in the family size desires of men and women and in the determinants of attitudes toward birth control.
  • (20) An accurate description of the coronary anatomy is desired before anatomic correction of d-transposition of the great arteries.