evict
verb
Simple meaning
Expel from one's property or force to move out by a legal process.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihviktSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈvɪkt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Expel from one's property or force to move out by a legal process
“The landlord evicted the tenants after they had not paid the rent for four months.”
transitive
To expel (one or more people) from their property; to force (one or more people) to move out.
computingtransitive
To eject from a memory cache to reduce the cache's size.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Expel from one's property or force to move out by a legal process
Used this way, evict is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
“The landlord evicted the tenants after they had not paid the rent for four months.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use evict
- “The landlord wanted to evict the tenants so he banged on the pipes every morning at 3 a.m.”verb
- “The landlord evicted the tenants after they had not paid the rent for four months.”verb
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “evict” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.