What does evocative mean?
Word: Evocative
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Evocative means bringing a strong memory, image or feeling into your mind.
How do you spell evocative?
Syllables: e - voc - a - tive
Tricky part: The k of evoke changes to a c here. Evokative is the usual slip.
Watch out for: evokative, evocetive
Memory tip: Something evocative calls up a memory. Keep the c from call.
Evocative in a sentence
Example 1: The film's evocative shots of old Lisbon made my mother smile.
Example 2: Thomas Hardy's novels are richly evocative of life in the English countryside.
Example 3: That old school bell is strangely evocative of my first classroom.
Fun Fact
Evoke, provoke and revoke all come from one Latin verb, and their longer forms evocative, provocative and revocation follow one pattern.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
evocattive
a) v
b) t
c) e
d) c
Show answer
b) t. One t is all that the -ive ending needs here, as in active.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose the correct word:
The photographer's most tvaeceoiv picture shows a lone boat at dusk.
a) decorative
b) innovative
c) effective
d) evocative
Show answer
d) evocative. Two v's in the jumble rule out decorative and effective, and innovative fails because it needs two n's.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word evocative as used in the sentence:
The smell of wet earth is evocative of the first monsoon rains in my village.
a) ignorant
b) ashamed
c) reminiscent
d) weary
Show answer
c) reminiscent. A smell that is reminiscent of the rains brings them back to mind.
Spell-o-Spell
Three words in the list are spelt correctly and one is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word.
1. evocative 2. metafore 3. imagery 4. nostalgia
a) a warm longing for the past
b) stirring up pictures and feelings
c) describing one thing as if it were another
d) pictures created by words in a poem
Show answer
c) describing one thing as if it were another. Metaphor stops at the r, with no e after it.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Decide which line of writing is the most evocative.
a) Please return this form to the office by next Friday.
b) The meeting will start at ten o'clock on Tuesday morning.
c) The train leaves from platform number four every day.
d) The smoke of wood fires drifted over the sleeping village.
Show answer
d) The smoke of wood fires drifted over the sleeping village.
2. Grandmother hums an evocative old tune and falls quiet. She is most likely ____.
a) checking the time on her watch
b) planning tomorrow's shopping
c) thinking of her younger days
d) counting the money in her purse
Show answer
c) thinking of her younger days
