Elicit or illicit?
elicit is a verb meaning “To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or…”; illicit is an adjective meaning “Not approved by law, but not invalid”. Use elicit as a verb and illicit as an adjective. They sound the same (/ɪˈlɪsɪt/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) illicit is about 2.1 times as common as elicit.
What is the difference between elicit and illicit?
| elicit | illicit | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer To draw out, bring out, bring forth (something latent); to obtain information from someone or something | Not approved by law, but not invalid Breaking social norms A banned or unlawful item |
| Example | Fred wished to elicit the time of the meeting from Jane | The bigamous marriage, while illicit, was not invalid |
| Forms | elicits, eliciting, elicited | none |
| Pronunciation | /ɪˈlɪsɪt/ | /ɪˈlɪsɪt/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 2.7 times per million words |
Sources: elicit and illicit in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of elicit and illicit
elicit
- 1
To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer
- 2
To draw out, bring out, bring forth (something latent); to obtain information from someone or something
Fred wished to elicit the time of the meeting from Jane
- 3
To use logic to arrive at truth; to derive by reason
illicit
- 1
Not approved by law, but not invalid
The bigamous marriage, while illicit, was not invalid
- 2
A banned or unlawful item
- 3
Breaking social norms
- 4
Unlawful
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, elicit or illicit?
elicit appears 1.3 times per million words; illicit 2.7 times per million words.
elicit 1.3 times per million wordsillicit 2.7 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search elicit vs illicit?
“elicit vs illicit” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 230 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“illicit vs elicit”, “elicit or illicit”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.