Meaning & use
evoke
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To bring a feeling, memory, or picture into someone's mind.
Grammar: Takes an object naming what comes to mind: evoke memories; no preposition after it.
Patterns
- evoke memories
- evoke a feeling
- evoke images of something
The smell of bread evokes memories of my grandmother's kitchen.
The song evokes a calm, lonely feeling.
Her photographs evoke images of small coastal towns.
verbtransitive
To cause a particular reaction, response, or expression from people.
Grammar: Takes an object naming the response: evoke laughter; common with reactions rather than private memories.
Patterns
- evoke laughter
- evoke a response
- evoke criticism
The joke evoked laughter from the whole table.
The ad evoked a strong response from viewers.
Her decision evoked criticism across the party.
verbtransitiveliterary
In older or literary use, to call up a spirit or the supposed presence of a dead person.
Grammar: Takes an object naming a spirit; today found mainly in stories about magic or ghosts.
Patterns
- evoke a spirit
- evoke the dead
In the tale, the magician evokes a spirit from the deep.
The medium claimed she could evoke the dead.
Legends say the bell evokes lost sailors on foggy nights.
Word forms
| third person singular | evokes |
|---|---|
| past tense | evoked |
| past participle | evoked |
| -ing form | evoking |
Common combinations
- evoke memories
- The old song evokes memories of our first trip together.
- evoke a response
- The poster was designed to evoke a response from young voters.
- evoke laughter
- The comedian's timing reliably evokes laughter.
- powerfully evoke
- The novel powerfully evokes the mood of the 1960s.
Synonyms and how they differ
- summon
- Means to call something up deliberately, often a person or strength; evoke is softer and often about feelings.
- recall
- Means to bring a memory back to your own mind; evoke means causing it to arise in someone else.
- elicit
- Used for drawing out a reaction or information, not usually memories or images.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: evoke or invoke? evoke or provoke?
evoke vs invoke
Invoke means to cite a law, authority, or ritual, as in invoke a rule; evoke means to bring a feeling or memory to mind.
evoke vs provoke
Provoke means to deliberately cause anger or a reaction, while evoke is usually neutral and about memories or feelings.
Practice
The lawyer decided to ___ an old case to support her argument.
Choose one answer.
Citing a rule, law, or authority is invoke, so invoke an old case fits. Evoke is for feelings or memories, provoke means to anger, and revoke means to cancel, so none of those fit the sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “evoke”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.