evocative
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of evocative
1650–60; < Latin ēvocātīvus, equivalent to ēvocāt ( us ) ( see evoke, -ate 1) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Use the adjective evocative when you want to describe something that reminds you of something else. If your mom baked a lot when you were a kid, the smell of cookies in the oven is probably evocative of your childhood. Evocative comes from the Latin word evocare, which means to "call out" or "summon." Think of a batch of cookies summoning a memory from your childhood. To summon something you need a voice, and indeed, the Latin word for voice is vocare. Other related words include the noun vocation, which means "a calling."
Vocabulary lists containing evocative
This Week in Words: April 13–19, 2019
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"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell
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The Night Circus
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ben Sulayem has cited the evocative sound of V8s as one his main reasons, as well as lighter cars.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
To me, the most evocative Aztec sites are the offbeat relics that now lie underground along Guatemala Street near the Templo Mayor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
At a Canadian Tire store in Montreal, a chain that sells hardware supplies and other goods, employees on Wednesday wore T-shirts bearing the evocative slogan: "We all play for Canada."
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Deeply evocative of a post-Dvorak new world, they are beautifully played on the new recording and would have been ideal for the Bowl.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Kant suggested explicitly that M31 in the constellation Andromeda was another Milky Way, composed of enormous numbers of stars, and proposed calling such objects by the evocative and haunting phrase “island universes.”
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
