Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell elicit

Elicit is spelled E-L-I-C-I-T.

What it means: To call forth responses or feelings.

In a sentence: The teacher tried to elicit answers from the students by asking interesting questions. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear.

Not to be confused with: illicit, a different word.

Same family: elicits, elicited, eliciting, evoke, draw-out. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Elicit” comes from the Latin verb *elicere*, meaning “to draw out” or “entice,” formed from *e-* (“out”) and *licere* (“to entice”). It is often confused with “illicit,” which looks similar but means “illegal” and comes from a different Latin root.

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Words like this

council · tractor · centimeter · fulfillment · symphony · illicit · allusion · generation

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