motive vs obligato

motive and obligato both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
motive	Yes	Yes	No	No
obligato	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, obligato is a hyponym of motive; that is, obligato is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than motive:

Other hyponyms of motive include obbligato.

motive (noun)	obligato (noun)
the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior	a part of the score that must be performed without change or omission
a design or figure that consists of recurring shapes or colors, as in architecture or decoration	a persistent but subordinate motif
a theme that is repeated or elaborated in a piece of music

motive (adjective)	obligato (adjective)
causing or able to cause motion
impelling to action