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evoke or invoke?
Don’t feel bad if you have difficulty remembering the difference between evoke and invoke, as the words are quite similar in many ways and have considerable overlap in meaning. However, the words do differ, and you would not want to substitute one for the other. Invoke is used of putting into effect or calling upon such things as laws, authority, or privilege (“the principal invoked a rule forbidding students from asking questions”). Evoke is primarily used in the sense “to call forth or up” and is often found in connection with such things as memories, emotions, or sympathy.
Examples of evoke in a Sentence
Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 20 Sep. 2025
As with her previous films, Zhao indulges in natural imagery while evoking the humanity of her protagonists, played by Paul Mescal and an especially good Jessie Buckley.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 20 Sep. 2025
The designs were puckish and gender-bending, evoking both awe and repulsion—the sort of clothing that titillates lovers of conceptual fashion and bewilders the uninitiated.
—Ana Karina Zatarain, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025
Each room has its own personality—one evokes a 1950s New York flat, and another a Parisian atelier.
—Emily Wilson, Bon Appetit Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for evoke
Cite this Entry
“Evoke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evoke. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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