Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To call on (a higher power) for assistance, support, or inspiration: "Stretching out her hands she had the air of a Greek woman who invoked a deity” ( Ford Madox Ford).
- v. To appeal to or cite in support or justification.
- v. To call for earnestly; solicit: invoked the help of a passing motorist.
- v. To summon with incantations; conjure.
- v. To resort to; use or apply: "Shamelessly, he invokes coincidence to achieve ironic effect” ( Newsweek).
- v. Computer Science To activate or start (a program, for example).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To address in supplication; call on for protection or aid: as, to invoke the Supreme Being; to invoke the Muses.
- To call for with earnest desire; make supplication or prayer for: as, to invoke God's mercy.
- In law, to call for judicially: as, to invoke depositions or evidence. Synonyms and To implore, supplicate, adjure, solicit, beseech.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To call upon (a person, especially a god) for help, assistance or guidance.
- v. transitive To appeal for validation to a (notably cited) authority.
- v. transitive To conjure up with incantations.
- v. transitive To bring about as an inevitable consequence.
- v. transitive To solicit, petition for, appeal to a favorable attitude.
- v. transitive, computing To cause (a program or subroutine) to execute.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To call on for aid or protection; to invite earnestly or solemnly; to summon; to address in prayer; to solicit or demand by invocation; to implore.
WordNet 3.0
- v. request earnestly (something from somebody); ask for aid or protection
- v. summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic
- v. cite as an authority; resort to
Etymologies
- From Middle English invoken, from Middle French invoquer (=modern French), from Latin invocare ("to call upon"), itself from in- + vocare 'to call' (Wiktionary)
- Middle English envoken, from Old French invoquer, from Latin invocāre : in-, in; + vocāre, to call. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The last thing I want to invoke is some crazy geek box office battle here.”
“We are experiencing writing, which, through the psychological processes Carnap and Dewey invoke, is "transformed" into a world of characters and their stories.”
“Across the country, small-town leaders who don't know any other words in English invoke those three letters dozens of times a day in conversation.”
The Washington Post: Desperate for tourism, Chinese cities fight for hometown bragging rights
“Not only does that title invoke Tyra Banks, Beyonce is starting to look like Tyra ...”
“Now, the easy answer, and the one that the demagogues of the left quickly invoke, is that’s because all the “excess” goes to the “rich.””
“I also see Shayn (and doesn't that name invoke a Western?) as a kind of Lone Ranger.”
The Huffington Post: Joseph Smigelski: Film Review: Soul Kitchen
“And she was an outsider: her home, Baton Rouge, was about eighty miles away, but an immeasurable distance in “culture” (to invoke a word she and others used with more regularity than specificity).”
“To apply attributes to individual actors because of their membership in an ethnic group or nation, denying their individual choices or self-definition, is something I now prickle at when coming from my own country as well, as toy recalls invoke the dangers of "The Chinese", as opposed to the dangers of long supply chains and merciless price competition.”
“One may wonder why this ginger species is called greenii when its colors and common name invoke the color red.”
“When I told people I was down the street from Oprah that was enough when you invoke her name you invoke a magic," Pinkney said.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘invoke’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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JURI - patent law
admissible, entry, allowable, fact, lapse, term, title, notes, abstract, absolute grounds ..., acquisition of th..., action for revoca... and 338 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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webdev
random webdev lingo used primarily in computer programming.
( open list, randomness, technical jargon, geek speak )
more:
ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 439 more... -
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
depict, delegation, daughter, Dardanus, Dardanian, Dardan, Hellespont, cupbearer, Crete, Cretan, Creon, copulate and 713 more...
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Useful 1
Encountered, not used frequently but useful.
nascent, hegemonic, iteratively, connotes, paradox, Terse, Monolithic, impecunious, axiomatically, invoke, Pervade, Eschew and 1 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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phil vocab 3
genocide, superfluous, warfare, indissoluble, sentient, confound, pernicious, dispose, render, amiable, paradox, puritanical and 36 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Vocabulary Words 2.
cow tow, evident, harassed, egalitarians, anomolous, tenuous, fondly, foment, construe, ingratiate, parlance, spectacular and 96 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, I
irenic, inimical, ignotism, infrangible, internecine, illumine, ingot, imposter, iconoclast, indefeasible, indefatigable, impingement and 184 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for invoke.

bilby *whirls* Mar 13, 2009
lea Invoking Your name
does not help me to see You.
I'm blinded by the light of Your face.
Longing for your lips
does not bring them any closer.
What veils You from me
is my memory of You.
Translation by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1999 Mar 13, 2009