Evoke

How to spell evoke

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce evoke

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does evoke mean?

1. verbTo bring a memory, feeling, or image clearly to mind, or to summon something forth.

Evoke in a sentence

• The smell of fresh bread can evoke memories of her grandmother's kitchen.

• A good advertisement should evoke a strong emotional response in the viewer.

Where does evoke come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin evocare, which literally meant 'to call out' or 'to summon forth', built from the prefix ex- meaning 'out' and the verb vocare meaning 'to call'. In Roman usage it had a striking religious sense: an evocatio was the formal ritual of summoning a city's protective gods to abandon it before a siege. English took the word in the seventeenth century, at first for calling up spirits, and it gradually softened into the modern sense of bringing a memory, feeling, or image vividly to mind. The same vocare root sits inside a whole family of relatives such as 'voice', 'vocal', 'provoke', and 'revoke', which can help explain the unexpected 'v' and the silent shaping of the spelling. The single 'e' at the start, standing in for the older 'ex-', is the part writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• e- (from ex-: out)
• voke (from Latin vocare: to call)