Invoke

How to spell invoke

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce invoke

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does invoke mean?

1. verbTo call on or appeal to a law, authority, right, or higher power, especially to put it into effect or to seek support.
2. verbTo cause a program, command, or function to run or be carried out.

Invoke in a sentence

• The lawyer planned to invoke an old statute to protect her client.

• The script will invoke the backup routine every night at midnight.

• Protesters tried to invoke their right to free assembly.

• You can invoke the function directly from the command line.

Where does invoke come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin invocare, meaning 'to call upon' or 'to appeal to', which was built from the prefix in- 'on, upon' and the verb vocare 'to call'. The same vocare root sits behind a whole family of English words, including 'vocal', 'vocation', 'advocate', and 'revoke', all of which carry the underlying idea of the voice or of calling. English took the word in during the late 1400s, originally in the sense of calling on a god or a higher power for help or protection. Over time the meaning broadened from that solemn religious appeal to the everyday legal and procedural sense of formally calling a law, right, or rule into effect. Remembering the vocare 'to call' root explains the spelling neatly: the central letters voc become the silent-magic-e form -voke, just as in 'revoke' and 'provoke'.

How the word is built

• in- (on, upon)
• voke (from Latin vocare, to call)