Make Your Point > Archived Issues > EDUCE

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pronounce EDUCE: Say it "ih DOOSE." It rhymes with "reduce." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: I'll be straight with you about the word educe. It's weird and old-fashioned, but I think it's valuable and worth knowing. Not because I'm going to use it in my writing or conversation--but because it's an etymological platypus. That is, it's a strange mix of familiar parts, e- and duce, like a duck's bill and a beaver's tail, forming a wonky little creature who demonstrates just how flexible, comprehensible, and, maybe, unified the English language can be. Like a platypus demonstrates the flexibility, comprehensibility, and unity of living things. Stick with me here on this platypus thing! Like the platypus belongs to the class of mammals, the word educe belongs to the class of words from the Latin ducere, "to lead." Some members of this class you see every day, like reduce, deduce, induce, produce, and introduce.  Other members, you spot less often in the wild; maybe they're even threatened or endangered, like subduce ("to take away"); circumduce ("to lead around"); retroduce ("to explain by assuming a cause"); and these two other little weirdos: 1. __duce (literally "to lead to," and meaning "to offer as evidence or support"); and 2. ___duce (literally "to lead across," and meaning "to talk trash about someone, as if parading their faults in front of everyone"). Can you recall both? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: "Educe" has Latin roots that literally mean "to lead out" or "to draw out." When you educe something (such as a main idea) from another thing (such as a book), you take it from there. In other words, to educe something is to infer it: to figure it out (from something), to take it (from something), or to construe it. There's another meaning of "educe," but it's even less common. You can say that one thing educes something, meaning it produces it, evokes it, or draws it out, as in, "Their outrageous comments educe attention from the media." grammatical bits: Part of speech: verb, usually the transitive kind: "they educed this idea from this book." Other forms: educed, educing, educement and eduction, educible. how to use it: Pick this formal, somewhat stuffy-sounding word when you need to strike a serious, scholarly tone. Say that people educe things from other things. Usually we educe ideas, meanings, patterns, principles, and conclusions from texts, observations, experiences, and sets of facts. "What can we educe from their philosophy?" "The human mind struggles to educe meaning and pattern from data that contain neither." You probably noticed the similarity in meaning (and etymology) between "educe" and "deduce." Technically speaking, they're pretty much interchangeable. My recommendation is, if you're saying that someone is simply realizing something, or someone is putting two and two together, then use the more common word, "deduce" instead of "educe." We want "educe" only in formal, serious contexts. examples: "Sir Isaac Newton...perceiving ripe fruit to fall from the trees, began to explore the reason why an apple...should fall rather than rise...and with true scientific precision, educed from that ordinary phenomenon the laws of gravitation."    — The English Review, 1794 "The parties apparently going the same course, and intent on the same object, but impelled by opposite principles, can never unite; like two parallel lines, they may run on together, but remain at the same distance, though they should extend themselves to infinity. ... From the same premises are educed opposite inferences."    — Isaac Disraeli, Amenities of Literature, 1800 has this page helped you understand "educe"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "educe" without saying "infer" or "construe." try it out: Allen Putnam wrote that "many of man's greatest blessings are educed from temporal evils of vast magnitude." He gives an example: John Brown's raid, which at the time inflicted "war, carnage, and horrors of varied forms and vast dimensions" on the nation, but eventually helped free the slaves. He repeats, more eloquently: "The methods of Providence [of God or nature] often educe choicest good from most direful evils." Talk about whether you agree or disagree. Is Putnam's observation wise, or baloney? Is it true that we often educe good things from evil events? Can you think of any other examples or counterexamples? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game this month is Lightning Rhyming Recall! In each issue this month, see how fast you can recall three words. They’re unrelated in meaning--probably--but they rhyme. To check your answers, scroll to the bottom of the issue. We’ll start out easy and ramp up the difficulty as the month goes on. Enjoy! Each word below rhymes with SONIC: A. (3 syllables, adjective) Something excellent, widely known, and easily recognized is... B. (3 syllables, adjective) To mock someone in a bitter, scornful way is to be… C. (2 syllables, adjective) Something that reminds you of a mythic underworld is... review this word: 1. A near opposite of EDUCE is A. ARGUE. B. REMEDY. C. INDICATE. 2. In older texts about chemistry, you'll find the words "educe" and "eduction," meaning, respectively, "_____" and "_____." A. defer .. deference B. extract .. extraction C. compress .. compression Answers to game questions: A. ICONIC B. SARDONIC (or maybe IRONIC) C. CHTHONIC Answers to review questions: 1. C 2. B a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.