arouse

Compared meaning: to cause a reaction or feeling (verb).

比较义项：引起（某种反应、感觉或回应）（动词）。

• provoke

  Provoke implies deliberately causing a strong, often negative reaction such as anger or an argument, and can suggest the action was annoying or intentional.

  provoke 强调故意引起强烈的、往往是负面的反应，比如愤怒或争吵，暗示这种行为带有挑衅或故意惹恼的意味。

  His rude comments during the meeting only provoked more arguments among the team.

  他在会议上无礼的言论只是在团队中引发了更多争吵。

• elicit

  Elicit is neutral and rather formal, used for drawing out an answer, response or information from someone, usually through questions or effort.

  elicit 语气中性、较为正式，指通过提问或努力从某人那里引出答案、回应或信息。

  The teacher asked careful questions to elicit ideas from her quiet students.

  老师精心提问，以便从沉默的学生那里引出一些想法。

• arouse 本词

  Arouse is used for causing a feeling such as curiosity, suspicion or interest to start, often involuntarily rather than through deliberate action or questioning.

  arouse 用于引起好奇心、怀疑或兴趣等情绪的产生，往往是不由自主的，而不是通过故意的行为或提问引起的。

  The strange noise outside began to arouse her curiosity late at night.

  外面奇怪的声音在深夜开始唤起她的好奇心。

Provoke, elicit, and arouse all mean to cause a reaction, but differ. Provoke causes a strong, negative reaction. Elicit is neutral and formal, drawing out an answer. Arouse causes a feeling like curiosity to start. Arouse's sexual sense and provoke's 'war' sense are not compared.

这三个词都表示引起某种反应或感觉，但语气和用法不同：provoke 通常带有负面色彩，指故意惹怒或激起争论；elicit 语气中性、正式，指通过提问或努力从某人那里引出回应或信息；arouse 多用于唤起好奇心、怀疑等情绪，往往是不由自主产生的。这里不比较 arouse 表示唤起性欲的义项，也不比较 provoke 表示引发（战争、危机等事件）的义项。

Compared meaning: to wake someone from sleep (verb).

比较义项：唤醒，使某人停止睡眠（动词）。

• wake

  The everyday, neutral word for ending sleep; usually used with 'up' and works both for waking someone else and waking up oneself, in speech and writing alike.

  wake是最日常、最中性的“醒来／唤醒”用词，通常与up连用，既可用于唤醒别人，也可用于自己醒来，口语和书面语中都常用。

  The alarm clock woke him up at six every morning.

  闹钟每天早上六点把他叫醒。

• awaken

  A more formal, literary alternative to wake; it does not need 'up' and can describe waking someone else or waking up oneself, often in written or dramatic contexts.

  awaken是比wake更正式、更书面化的说法，不需要加up，既可表示唤醒别人，也可表示自己醒来，常用于书面语或戏剧性的语境中。

  The soldiers were awakened by gunfire in the distance before dawn.

  天亮前，士兵们被远处的枪声惊醒。

• awake

  An old-fashioned or literary verb, most often seen in its past form 'awoke' in narrative writing; in everyday spoken English, 'wake up' is used instead.

  awake是较为老式或文学化的动词，最常以过去式awoke出现在叙述性文字中；在日常口语英语中，人们通常会用wake up来代替。

  The thunderclap awoke the child, who began crying at once.

  雷声把孩子惊醒了，孩子立刻哭了起来。

• arouse 本词

  A formal, literary word for waking someone from sleep; it usually needs a phrase like 'from sleep' to be clear, because arouse more often means to stir up a feeling, interest, or suspicion.

  arouse是表示把人从睡眠中唤醒的正式、书面用词，通常需要加上像“from sleep”这样的短语才能表达清楚，因为arouse更常见的意思是唤起某种情绪、兴趣或怀疑。

  The smell of smoke finally aroused him from his deep sleep.

  烟味最终把他从沉睡中唤醒。

All four can mean to wake someone from sleep. Wake is the everyday word. Awaken is more formal and literary. Awake is old-fashioned, mostly seen as 'awoke' in stories. Arouse is formal and usually needs 'from sleep', since it often means to stir a feeling.

这四个词在“把人叫醒”这一意义上相近，但语体和搭配有别：wake最口语常用，awaken和awake更正式或书面化，awake常以过去式awoke出现在叙述性文字中，而arouse在此意义上很正式，且通常需要加上“from sleep”一类短语，否则容易被理解为其更常见的“唤起（兴趣、怀疑等情绪）”之义。这里不比较awaken“使意识到某事”的义项、arouse“唤起、激起（情绪、兴趣等）”的义项，以及awake作形容词表示“醒着的”的用法。