invocation

American  

[in-vuh-key-shuhn] / ˌɪn vəˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

• invocations
  plural

1. the act of invoking or calling upon a deity, spirit, etc., for aid, protection, inspiration, or the like; supplication.

2. any petitioning or supplication for help or aid.

3. a form of prayer invoking God's presence, especially one said at the beginning of a religious service or public ceremony.

4. an entreaty for aid and guidance from a Muse, deity, etc., at the beginning of an epic or epiclike poem.

5. the act of calling upon a spirit by incantation.

6. the magic formula used to conjure up a spirit; incantation.

7. the act of calling upon or referring to something, as a concept or document, for support and justification in a particular circumstance.

8. the enforcing or use of a legal or moral precept or right.

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invocation British  

/ ˌɪnvəˈkeɪʃən, -trɪ, ɪnˈvɒkətərɪ /

noun

1. the act of invoking or calling upon some agent for assistance

2. a prayer asking God for help, forgiveness, etc, esp as part of a religious service

3. an appeal for inspiration and guidance from a Muse or deity at the beginning of a poem

4. 1. the act of summoning a spirit or demon from another world by ritual incantation or magic

   2. the incantation used in this act

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preinvocation
  noun
• invocational
  adjective
• invocatory
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• invocations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of invocation

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English invocacio(u)n, from Latin invocātiōn-, stem of invocātiō “a calling upon”; see invocate, -ion

Explanation

An invocation is an appeal to a higher power for help, such as a prayer for serenity or a plea to the rain gods during a drought. An invocation often refers to an appeal to something not of this world, such as a god or a spirit, but it can involve an appeal to any higher power, even one that is flesh and blood. During a close basketball game, for example, you may mutter an invocation to the former NBA star Michael Jordan asking that your team’s star player somehow gain the power to hit his jump shots. The word invocation can also be used in the sense of invoking a notable authority to support a position. If you say, “But my mom said I should never wear cheap clothing,” for example, that is an invocation of your mom in support of your desire to buy designer jeans.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

invocation invocations

Shot in only one day and clocking in around eight minutes, the final scene feels as much like a seance or invocation as a piece of drama.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

Despite a halfhearted invocation of those words here, nearly every scene of the movie is a disappointment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

While neither of the “Devil Wears Prada” movies revolve around Christianity, the invocation of the devil taps into an older moral rhetoric.

From Salon ● May 17, 2026

Still, the mere invocation of license revocation has a powerful chilling effect.

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026

It was a simple invocation of hope, a call to persist.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

The event included interfaith invocations, musical performances and block party-style celebrations along Broadway’s “Canyon of Heroes,” drawing attention to the city’s cultural and political diversity.

From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026

Tina Brown called American Canto “absurdly pretentious,” wincing at its repeated invocations of Joan Didion’s unsettling Santa Ana winds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025

Comparisons to the late-1990s dot-com bubble abound, as do invocations of the crash that followed.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025

The extent to which this testimony negates the negative legal inferences one could draw from his first round of Fifth Amendment privilege invocations remains to be seen.

From Slate ● May 11, 2023

The ceremony continued for some time, with more perambulations and exchanges of secret passwords and hand signs, more invocations and singing, until C.P. found himself at last standing before the large central altar.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson