evoke
Americanverb (used with object)
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evokes,
present (3rd person singular)
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evoked,
past participle, past
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evoking
present participle
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to call up or produce (memories, feelings, etc.).
to evoke a memory.
-
to elicit or draw forth.
His comment evoked protests from the shocked listeners.
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to call up; cause to appear; summon.
to evoke a spirit from the dead.
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to produce or suggest through artistry and imagination a vivid impression of reality.
a short passage that manages to evoke the smells, colors, sounds, and shapes of that metropolis.
verb
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to call or summon up (a memory, feeling, etc), esp from the past
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to call forth or provoke; produce; elicit
his words evoked an angry reply
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to cause (spirits) to appear; conjure up
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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evokesimple
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evokessimple
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have evokedperfect
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has evokedperfect
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am evokingprogressive
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are evokingprogressive
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is evokingprogressive
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have been evokingperfect progressive
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has been evokingperfect progressive
Past
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evokedsimple
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had evokedperfect
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was evokingprogressive
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were evokingprogressive
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had been evokingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of evoke
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin ēvocāre, from ē- e- 1 + vocāre “to call” (akin to vōx voice )
Explanation
The verb evoke most commonly means to bring a feeling, memory, or picture into the mind. When you visit your old elementary school, the smells, sounds, and colors there can evoke memories from the past. Similarly, a certain reaction can be evoked by words or actions, as in "His comments evoked anger in the community." A near synonym is elicit, as in "No matter how many different ways the detective questioned the suspect, he could not elicit any response. Evoke was borrowed from Latin evocare, from the prefix e- "out," plus vocare "to call."
Vocabulary lists containing evoke
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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.
See Examples For:
These rooms powerfully evoke what Kaplan in the catalog calls America’s “restless forward motion, powered by the conviction that tomorrow’s design would solve today’s problems.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ms. Kingsolver dramatizes it by way of a village recital, turning to music to evoke the feelings that straightforward exposition would heavy-handedly summarize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Since settling into the home, Biles has offered several glimpses inside the lavish property—including a peek at their luxurious bedroom, which was designed to evoke the feeling of a five-star hotel.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
Berridge says the ritual could produce a "dopamine hit and strong 'wanting', and also evoke faint conditioned 'liking'".
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
The loss of my job did not evoke in me any hostility toward the system of rules that had barred my first grasp at the material foundations of American life.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
She says the royals remain "highly vulnerable" to anything that evokes the story of a "beautiful princess whose life was cut short in such tragic and ambiguous circumstances".
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Every work in the show evokes a memory for his daughters as well.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Edman’s effectiveness evokes memories of Maury Wills batting first for successful 1960s Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
What they’re seeing is pretty grim—a onetime superpower that no longer evokes much respect or fear.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
The sewing kit wrapped in cheesecloth evokes the Byrnes’ grim home.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
The government also evoked for the first time Wednesday the potential of a full privatisation of TAP, in exchange for a stake in Lufthansa.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Ciganda's celebration evoked memories of the nerve-shredding finale at Finca Cortesin in 2023, when her putt allowed Europe to retain the trophy with a 14-14 tie.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
There, one song evoked a musical conception he had imagined but never achieved—“it dealt with space, and a logic that rhymed and was almost obtuse,” Mr. Batiste once told me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The back-to-back releases of the Paramount+ drama “The Madison” and Apple TV comedy “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” this spring evoked Michelle Pfeiffer’s 1980s and 1990s movie heyday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
I could not shake the almost desperate sadness all this evoked, and I marveled that sounds could so degrade the spirit.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
It is unusual to see a traveling exhibition at two venues—rarer still to find each setting evoking such a different facet of an artist’s sensibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Eiko Ishioka designed the blood-red battle armor with a ribbed surface evoking both exposed human musculature and an armadillo’s shell, while the pointed helmet foreshadows the wolf Dracula later becomes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Launching their new partnership with Oxen, Hull City have released a very retro kit for the new campaign, evoking the shirts the Tigers wore during the late seventies.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
That drew excitement from industry insiders, with some evoking a 2025 release from China's DeepSeek that shook assumptions of US dominance in AI.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Claude Debussy was so intrigued by the Javanese dancers and musicians at the 1899 World’s Fair in Paris that he developed techniques for evoking the exotic sounds of the gamelan on a Western piano.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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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.
