How to use elicit in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective

Elicit means to evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer. Example: “Fred wished to elicit the time of the meeting from Jane.”

Examples of elicit by meaning

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

Elizabeth's queenship elicited her subjects' fantasies and fears that she was, as Shakespeare's Cleopatra puts it, “no more but e'en a woman,” and that a woman ruling over men would necessarily subject her entire realm to unbridled feminine sexual desire.1994, M. Lindsey Kaplan, Katherine Eggert, ““Good queen, my lord, good queen” - Sexual Slander and the Trials of Female Authority in “The...

verbTo 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.
Did you elicit a response?
He visited three department stores in New York and asked the attendant a question that would elicit the answer fourth floor; for example, he might have asked Excuse me, where are women's shoes?2009, William B. McGregor, Linguistics: An Introduction Answer Key

More sentences with elicit

The electric shock elicited an automatic and reflexive response from him.From the entry reflexive
The drug can elicit a 15 percent to 17 percent weight loss in people with obesity.2022 April 28, Gina Kolata, “Patients Taking Experimental Obesity Drug Lost More Than 50 Pounds, Maker Claims”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry semaglutide
Guiding students in assessing AI-generated content instills discernment, while prompt crafting elicits original thinking.2022, Sean Doyle, “Chapter 6: Augmenting Intelligence with Generative AI”, in Julia Nyberg, Jessica A. Manzone, editors, Practices That…. From the entry prompt crafting
Megan Milks is a master at eliciting strong reactions; their work lives in the viscera.2021 September 10, Katie Yee, “7 new story collections to fall into this season.”, in Literary Hub. From the entry Quincest
The melodramatic moment elicits a characteristic Eliotian commentary on the complexity of human will.2016, A Companion to George Eliot, page 98. From the entry Eliotian
With step current injections, the IPSPs elicited by optostimulation of dmLC neurons changed their amplitudes gradually.2016 January 20, “Identification of a Group of GABAergic Neurons in the Dorsomedial Area of the Locus Coeruleus”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry optostimulation
The sGnRH has been shown to elicit GTH-releasing activity and is considered to be the hypophysiotropic form.2015 September 24, “The Olfactory Transcriptome and Progression of Sexual Maturation in Homing Chum Salmon Oncorhynchus keta”, in PLOS…. From the entry hypophysiotropic
In the TNF-α assay, the chronic isogen AES-1M elicited a significantly greater response compared to AES-1M.2015 August 7, Christopher J. Harmer et al., “Homogentisate 1-2-Dioxygenase Downregulation in the Chronic Persistence of Pseudomonas…. From the entry isogen
Fancy checkering patterns, meticulously executed, are sure to elicit oohs and ahhs.2013, Tom Turpin, Modern Custom Guns: Walnut, Steel, and Uncommon Artistry, 2nd edition, Iola, Wis.: Gun Digest Books, →ISBN, page 47. From the entry stock
How contemporary artistic performances elicit cathexis on the part of the audience and promote unifying social rituals.2013, Isher-Paul Sahni, “More than Horseplay”, in Studies in Popular Culture, volume 35, page 76. From the entry cathexis
Trenholme groaned softly in the background, eliciting a sharp command from his brother to “shut his jobbernowl.”2006, Pamela Aidan, Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, Simon and Schuster, page 266. From the entry jobbernowl
Anaphylaxis is the syndrome elicited in a hypersensitive subject upon subsequent exposure to the sensitizing antigen.1999, Michael A. Kaliner, “12: Anaphylaxis”, in Marianne Frieri, Brett Kettelhut, editors, Food Hypersensitivity and Adverse Reactions…. From the entry sensitize
Sembene uses the epistology form to elicit the female point of view in sensitive issues.1994, Helen Chukwuma, editor, Feminism in African Literature: Essays on Criticism, Enugu: New Generation Books, →ISBN, page 96. From the entry epistology
Tapping on the glabellum, just above the nose, which can elicit uninhibitable blinking in Parkinsonism.1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings. From the entry uninhibitable
The family history of connation was elicited, and radiographs were taken of the patients.1971, Charles Goodliffe Darlington, George W. Wilson, The Year Book of Dentistry - Volume 1971, page 74. From the entry connation
Figure 5: Officials from Aqyar Township, Aksu Prefecture announcing plans to elicit more gratitude towards the party from villagers.2021, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, James Leibold, Daria Impiombato, The architecture of repression: Unpacking Xinjiang’s governance, number 51…. From the entry Aqyar
Be quiet I say all you buggers, naansense I say!” shouted the teacher, eliciting more of the laughter.2021 June 21, Abhishek Talwar, Chronicles of a Wanderer: Adesh Dhamija’s search for himself, Notion Press, →ISBN. From the entry naansense
In an effort to elicit positive feedback (upvotes) from other Imgurians, commenters create normative comments which reinforce social identity.2017 July 12, Brent J. Hale, ““+1 for Imgur”: A content analysis of SIDE theory and common voice effects on a hierarchical…. From the entry Imgurian
It’s the knottier questions that elicit his cleaving judgments.2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker. From the entry knotty
Inquiry elicited that he was a pop singer.2015 April 21, Bob Jones, “Appetite for quirky fulfilled”, in Wanganui Chronicle, archived from the original on 24 Apr 2015. From the entry YouTube
Studies that support the hypervigilance theory have largely used electrical stimulation or focal pressure to elicit the judgement of pain threshold.2012, Winston C.V. Parris, Contemporary Issues in Chronic Pain Management, page 138. From the entry hypervigilance
The more realistic or authentic an object appears, the more likely it is to elicit anxiety or despair in the automatonophobiac.2011 October 17, Speculo, “The 13 Nightmares of NETHERWORLD Haunted House! Number 12 Automatonophobia!”, in Netherworld News. From the entry automatonophobiac
In any given performance, their tosses and spins and leaps elicit oohs and ahhs from children and adults.2009 January 4, Joe Brescia, “Twins Graduate From Columbia to Stardom at the Circus”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on…. From the entry ooh
The text and the method of the papyric commentator do not allow us to elicit the authentic Simonidean version.2009, Evanthia Tsitsibakou-Vasalos, “Chance or Design? Language and Plot Management in the Odyssey. Klytaimnestra ἄλοχος μνηστὴ έμήσατο”…. From the entry papyric
With some exceptions, doorknocking is likely to elicit a large number of small donations but relatively few large donations.2007, Philip Hughes, Alan Black, Peter Kaldor, Building Stronger Communities, page 156. From the entry doorknock
As an adult, twindom elicits more peculiar reactions.2007, Randi Sabroe Inger Merete Sarborg, Randi Sabroe, Inger Merete Sarborg, To Clone Or Not to Clone - Page 35. From the entry twindom
Most often, phantosmias occur after trauma or URTI and consist of unpleasant odors occurring without being elicited through environmental odor sources.2005, B. N. Landis, T. Hummel, J.-S. Lacroix, “Basic and Clinical Aspects of Olfaction”, in Nejat Akalan, Concezio Di Cuore Rocco, Vinko…. From the entry phantosmia
One can readily elicit knismesis in oneself (this is easily demonstrated by dragging a fingernail lightly over one’s skin).1999, Christine R. Harris, Nicholas Christenfeld, “Can a machine tickle?”, in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6(3) pp. 504-510. From the entry knismesis
A malady that was rare, but which because of its peculiarity elicited much comment, was "night blindness" or "gravel."1943, Bell Irvin Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 255. From the entry gravel
Second, by intentionally eliciting the shaming stare, Cubacub positions the queercrip body as an active agent rather than a passive object of the gaze.2022, Timothy Oleksiak, “On Taking The Bottom's Stance, Or Not Your Typical Submissive”, in Jacqueline Rhodes, Jonathan Alexander…. From the entry queercrip
Soldiers’ stridulations elicited a smaller amount of antennations, but not statistically different from those elicited by Paussus favieri single pulses or worker stridulations.2015 July 9, “The Pied Piper: A Parasitic Beetle’s Melodies Modulate Ant Behaviours”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry antennation
Her call elicited an annoyed gronk above her head, and she looked up to see a raven lifting off the cliff face.2010, Diane Lee Wilson, Raven Speak, page 6. From the entry gronk
Ravers listen to technomusic at home, and some have commented that certain tracks of music can elicit ASC similar to the ones experienced at raves.2005, Michael J. Gilmour, Call Me the Seeker, page 244. From the entry raver
This pattern, not the feathering, is all-important since a plain plastic model is as effective as a stuffed mount in eliciting mobbing by pied flycatchers.1993, E. Curio, “Proximate and Developmental Aspects of Antipredator Behavior”, in Advances in the Study of Behavior, volume 22, San…. From the entry eyestripe
In attempts to quantify pain (algesimetry), most experimental observations have been made on acute pain elicited from easily accessible, mostly cutaneous, structures.1986, Floyd E. Bloom, Handbook of physiology, page 582. From the entry algesimetry
By one reporter's count, questions about the change elicited seven shakes of the head indicating no comment, five "yeps" and three "nopes" from Earnhardt.1981, Tom Higgins, Practice quick...and swim, read in Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror, Sports Publishing LLC (2001), p. 32. From the entry nope

Meaning of elicit

verb To evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer.
verb To draw out, bring out, bring forth (something latent); to obtain information from someone or something.
verb To use logic to arrive at truth; to derive by reason.

Full definition of elicit

Questions about elicit in a sentence

How do you use elicit in a sentence?: Elicit is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “Fred wished to elicit the time of the meeting from Jane.”
What is a short sentence with elicit?: “Did you elicit a response?”
What does elicit mean?: Elicit means to evoke, educe (emotions, feelings, responses, etc.); to generate, obtain, or provoke as a response or answer.

Adapted from Wiktionary: elicit (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use elicit in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/elicit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.