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an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment:
Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.
the object, state, or result desired or sought after:
The crown was his ambition.
desire for work or activity; energy:
I awoke feeling tired and utterly lacking in ambition.
to seek after earnestly; aspire to.
Contemporary Examples

You also make a special promise never to “strive or ambition” for a high office in the Jesuits or in the church.
A Prominent Jesuit Talks About the Order’s First Pope Abby Haglage March 13, 2013

“Sure,” said the younger male eagerly, his eyes bright with ambition.
Is Polanski the New O.J.? Marcia Clark October 5, 2009

Rage shares that ambition, even though its release is gimmicky.
Jude Law in Drag Caryn James September 22, 2009

But only with women is ambition treated as something shameful.
The Right Subjects Wendy Davis to Litmus Tests No Male Would Ever Face Kirsten Powers January 23, 2014

So it’s less about the degree and more about ambition and drive.
Are Liberal Arts Majors Really Useless? The Daily Beast April 23, 2012

Historical Examples

In yourself, in Polypes, there is an ambition to cease to be one.
The Sea Jules Michelet

No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions.
United States Presidents’ Inaugural Speeches Various

Vanity was really his other name, and ambition with him knew no bounds.
The “Genius” Theodore Dreiser

She had won her ambition of years, revenge on the man who had sent her to prison.
Within the Law Marvin Dana

He hoped to arm against the ambition of Rome all the barbarous nations his neighbours, whose liberty she threatened.
Legends of the Saxon Saints Aubrey de Vere

noun
strong desire for success, achievement, or distinction
something so desired; goal; aim
n.

mid-14c., from Middle French ambition or directly from Latin ambitionem (nominative ambitio) “a going around,” especially to solicit votes, hence “a striving for favor, courting, flattery; a desire for honor, thirst for popularity,” noun of action from past participle stem of ambire “to go around” (see ambient).

Rarely used in the literal sense in English, where it carries the secondary Latin sense of “eager or inordinate desire of honor or preferment.” In early use always pejorative, of inordinate or overreaching desire; ambition was grouped with pride and vainglory.