Elicit often mean ‘to get something’. Illicit, on the other hand, describes something illegal. Because they are pronounced the same but have different meanings, we call these words homophones. These words are often confused – even by native English speakers. So, how to tell the difference between them?
Difference between elicit and illicit
Synonyms of elicit and illicit
Use elicit and illicit in a sentence
Elicit or Illicit: the difference
Elicit
Is a verb: A word or phrase that describes an action, condition, or experience.
Illicit
Is an adjective: A word that describes a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality.
Elicit or Illicit: the definitions
Elicit
To get or produce something, especially information or a reaction.
To get a student to provide or remember a fact, response, etc. rather than telling them the answer.
Illicit
Illegal or disapproved of by society
Elicit or Illicit: the synonyms
Elicit
Could also mean (synonyms): Extort, evoke, extract, obtain, bring out, derive, fetch, wrest, wring, cause.
Illicit
Synonyms include: Adulterous, bootleg, contraband, illegal, illegitimate, immoral, improper, unlawful, prohibited.
Elicit or Illicit: in a sentence
Elicit
Barry wanted to elicit empathy, so he told everyone the story of his fight with cancer.
The officer was confident he was able to elicit the truth about his partner’s disappearance from the informant.
The school fair was a success. It managed to elicit donations from many small businesses.
She hoped to elicit some information from her friends about her surprise birthday gift, but failed.
If I can elicit enough support from my older siblings, I know that my parents will let me travel on my own.
Illicit
In school, students are prohibited from having illicit items such as drugs, alcohol and weapons.
I resigned. I couldn’t bear to work for a man who is willing to engage in illicit practices to grow his business.
Jayden stays away from all illicit activities because he doesn’t want to disappoint his loved ones.
Want to learn more about commonly confused words?
In written English, it is important to know the correct spelling of a word you want to use. For example, you don’t want to write “weak” when you mean “week” even though they sound the same. In spoken English, spelling is less important, but pronunciation is. Think about the word “lead” which can be pronounced as “led” /led/ or “leed” /li:d/. Because these words cause a lot of confusion, it’s well worth spending a few minutes to know the difference: homophones vs homographs vs homonyms. We’ve also explained 50 most commonly mispronounced words.
People often use elude when they mean allude, or write allude when they should really write elude. There are other commonly confused words too: Do you know the difference between belief or believe? That is the question in another article where we explain the difference between these two commonly misused words. Read it here.