elicit

What It Means

Elicit is a formal word meaning “to get (a response, information, etc.) from someone.”

// The announcement of the final amount raised by the charity walk elicited cheers from the crowd.

// The teacher’s question elicited no response.

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elicit in Context

“By the end of the ceremony, the attendees knew where each soon-to-be graduate would be studying next. The students lined up and stormed the stage, screaming their names and their postsecondary destinations while hoisting flags from the institutions in the air. ... Each proud declaration elicited raucous clapping and hooting from the crowd.” — Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post, 15 May 2025

Often used to describe “the march of time,” what does inexorable mean?

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Say them fast—or even slow—in isolation, and no one will know which one you mean: elicit and illicit both rhyme with the likes of explicit and complicit. But beyond being auditorily indistinguishable, they are used very differently. Illicit is an adjective applied to no-nos. It’s used to describe things people aren’t supposed to do. Something illicit is not permitted especially because it is illegal. Elicit, on the other hand, is a verb most often used to talk about calling forth or drawing out a response or reaction from someone, as in “her onstage antics elicited roars of laughter from the audience.” The Latin ancestors of this pair are easy to confuse too. Elicit comes from elicitus, illicit from illicitus. But going back just a little further, we find that elicit traces back beyond elicitus to lacere, meaning “to allure,” while illicitus comes ultimately from licēre, meaning “to be permitted.”

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete a verb meaning “to call forth” or “to incite to anger”: p _ _ v _ _ e.

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