While these two words aren’t quite homophones or homonyms, they still sound similar enough to cause some confusion—especially since we don’t use them on a daily basis. They both come from the same root word, which can be traced to the Latin word for “voice”—vox. “One decision is absolutely in London’s hands: when to begin the process of withdrawal by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.” Although invoke still carries the connotation of "calling," it is more of a "call upon" than evoke’s "call to mind." “Baaba Maal’s tribute to Nelson Mandela, “Njilou,” begins with vocalisations that evoke traditional music from Senegal, but builds, assuredly and with the ecstatic cooperation of his audience, into a vision of a united Africa.” To save this word, you'll need to log in. To call upon for aid: —Victor Hugo, Les Miserables While there is overlap in some of the meanings of these words, they also have a number of senses which would make substituting one for the other problematic in certain circumstances. Invoke begins with an “I” and is Intentional because to invoke something is a purposeful action. The president invoked martial law to stop the protests. Examples of these include evocative, which means “evoking or tending to evoke an especially emotional response,” and invocation, which is frequently used in the sense of “a summoning up or calling upon for authority or justification.”. For instance, both invoke and evoke may be used to mean “conjure” or “to cite, especially with approval or for support.” The most commonly used senses of evoke, however, are those concerned with calling something forth (particularly something which is hidden, or not immediately obvious). —The Malta Independent It is the executioner’s accomplice; it consumes, devouring flesh and drinking blood.” We wrote you a limerick, but it won't help you remember the difference, Set your young readers up for lifelong success, Tasty Only in Afterthought: 6 Words That Didn’t Always Describe Food, Study Up With Our Official SCRABBLE Dictionary. “From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds.” You think that you might’ve misspoke BoJo discusses lockdown restrictions, phosphine It starts with an “E” and is Effortless because it is less purposefully active. A good trick to keep these two words apart is that evoke starts with an “E” and to evoke something is Effortless because it is less active and purposeful than invoke. Evoke vs. invoke To e voke is (1) to summon or call forth, (2) to call to mind, and (3) to call up a memory from the past. Here are a few sentences you can practice with. For example, a certain smell can evoke memories of the past. At this point I would like to _________ my Fifth Amendment rights. Delivered to your inbox! Here is a good example sentence illustrating their difference. Of the two invoke is slightly older, dating back to the late 15th century. “Mario Cardona, 36 from Victoria, Gozo, today was acquitted of fraud in what can be seen as a bizarre attempt to invoke a 30,000 year-old demon with the name ‘Bezuzu’, to help a woman, Carol Milroy, get back at then husband Iain Gilbert Milroy following an alleged affair in October 2014.” For example. There is little confusion with longer forms of each word, which may help you in differentiating between them. With your recent use of invoke Attain vs. Evoke is passive and indirect, and it usually has an emotional or intellectual effect. The modern English words cause confusion not simply because of a similarity of form, but because the meanings may be quite close. The word invoke was first used as a calling out to God where you would issue an invocation asking for strength, mercy, a prosperous year, or whatever the case may be. —News.com.au, Evoke also has several meanings, and it can be used in several ways: How to be Successful in Online Writing Courses. Great Britain invoked military aid from the United States. In this post, we’ll talk about their differences and give you a few ways to remember the difference between evoke vs. invoke.