evocative means that evokes (brings to mind) a memory, mood, idea, feeling, or image; redolent or reminiscent.
evocative is pronounced /ɪˈvɒk.ə.tɪv/.
Why “evocative” is a great word
That which powerfully summons strong memories, feelings, or images. From Latin ēvocātīvus ("pertaining to summoning"), from ēvocāre ("to call forth"), first attested in English in the 1650s. Unlike "suggestive," which implies a coy, indirect hint, or "expressive," which denotes the outward manifestation of an internal state, evocative is the deliberate conjuring of specific sensation from the world. It is the scent of rain on hot pavement that returns you wholly to a childhood summer, the particular amber of old glass that holds the ghost of a forgotten room, or the crackle of a vinyl record that summons not just a song but the texture of an entire era—evidence that the past waits, patient and intact, to be called back into being.
Etymology
From Latin ēvocātīvus (“pertaining to summoning”). By surface analysis, evoke + -ative.
adj
- That evokes (brings to mind) a memory, mood, idea, feeling, or image; redolent or reminiscent.e.g.“Using loose but evocative language, one might say that player 2 is threatening to play R' if player 1 plays R.”
Words closest in meaning
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