Invoke Vocabulary

The Latin root word voc and its variant vok both mean “call.” This podcast’s “calling” will most certainly increase your vocabulary!

We all know that the vocal component of learning a language is the speaking of it, or “calling” it out. Indeed, your voice is that part of you which “calls” out words. Words which are “called” out are the vocabulary of a language; vocabulary can also be thought of as the words which things or actions are “called.” Particularly enthusiastic students may be vociferous in the practicing of their vocabulary, “calling” out the words for both their own class and the one next door to hear loud and clear!

Most of us will get some sort of job after we finish school. We lucky ones will work at a vocation, or “calling” that we have, so we will love what we do. Others of us will just have jobs to make money. The opposite of a job or vocation is an avocation, which is a “calling” away from one’s vocation, that is, a pastime or hobby. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your vocation and avocation were one and the same? Perhaps when you become President, you can advocate for that by supporting or “calling” towards that becoming a reality.

The variant spelling vok, also meaning “call,” usually comprises verbs in English, and promptly switches back to voc with a change in part of speech. Here are some examples:

invoke: to “call” upon; invocation: the act of “calling” upon (usually for help)
revoke: to “call” back; irrevocable: unable to be “called” back (you cannot revoke an irrevocable act, such as breaking an egg)
provoke: to “call” forth; provocation: the act of “calling” forth (usually of a negative emotion of some kind)
evoke: to “call” forth/from; evocation: a “calling” forth/from (usually of a feeling or event from the past)

Now you can confidently “call” out definitions of vocabulary words formed from voc and its variant vok, so vociferously vocalize away!

1. vocal: of “calling”
2. voice: that which can “call”
3. vocabulary: words “called” out, what words are being “called” out, or what words “call” things
4. vociferous: of carrying “calling” a long ways, hence being loud
5. vocation: a “calling” in life
6. avocation: a “calling” away from a job, hence a hobby or other pastime
7. advocate: to “call” towards as a show of support
8. invoke: to “call” upon
9. invocation: a “calling” upon
10. revoke: to “call” back
11. irrevocable: not capable of being “called” back
12. provoke: to “call” forth
13. provocation: the act of “calling” forth
14. evoke: to “call” forth
15. evocation: the act of “calling” forth
16. vocalize: to “call” with the voice