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elicit

/ɪˈlɪsɪt/verb

elicit is spelled E-L-I-C-I-T: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “elicit vs illicit” about 2,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, elicit means “To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in elicit?

Letters6: E-L-I-C-I-T
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is elicit?

Elicit appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce elicit?

  • /ɪˈlɪsɪt/

Elicit has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-elicit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with elicit

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

elicit vs illicit2,400 G

Sounds like: illicit (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of elicit

  • elicits present, singular, he/she/it
  • eliciting participle, present
  • elicited participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does elicit mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer.

  2. 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. 3

    To use logic to arrive at truth; to derive by reason.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteElicited; drawn out; made real; open; evident.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Elicit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsusciter (to evoke, educe), causer, réaliser, obtenir (to draw out, bring out), raisonner, déduire (to use logic to arrive at truth)
Germanhervorlocken, hervorrufen, auslösen, erzeugen (to evoke, educe), herauslocken, entlocken (to draw out, bring out)
Portugueseprovocar (to evoke, educe), conseguir, levantar, obter (to draw out, bring out), deduzir, inferir (to use logic to arrive at truth)
Spanishsuscitar, elicitar (to evoke, educe), sonsacar, saconear (to draw out, bring out), elícito (Translations)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does elicit come from?

Borrowed from Latin elicitus from eliciō (“draw forth”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after elicit