Other forms: invoked, invoking, invokes
To invoke is to call upon a law, a right or a higher power for support. Invoke Article 50, invoke the fifth, invoke a spirit.
In law and politics it means formally bringing a provision into play — invoking a clause, invoking emergency powers. In religion and magic it means calling on a being for help, which is the older sense. In computing, to invoke a function is to call it. Note invocation; and the difference from evoke, which means to bring a feeling or memory to mind.
1verbinvokeTo call formally upon a law or a right.
“The suspect invoked his right to remain silent.”
2verbhigherTo call upon a higher power.
“Before the battle, the priests invoked the gods to protect the army.”
invoke is a calling upon.
Also accepted in games: cite
Latin invocare is in plus vocare, to call. Vocation, vocal, revoke and provoke come from the same calling.
Proto-Indo-European
*wekʷ-
Latin
invocō — to call upon
Old French
envoquer
Middle English
*invoken
English, today
invoke
From Middle English invoken, envoken, borrowed from Old French envoquer, from Latin invocō (“to call upon”), itself from in- + vocare. a doublet of invocate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA