v. 1
To quote; to repeat, as a passage from a book, or the words of another.
v. 2
To mention; to make mention of.
v. 3
To mention; to make mention of. To mention by way of explanation.
n. 1
A citation.
We used the number of cites as a rough measure of the significance of each published paper.

Related words

Word family: citability citation

Forms

Plural: cites → citations, references, quotations, excerpts…
Past participle: cited
e.g. cited → summoned, invoked, called, summonsed…

Choose the right word

Cite or Quote?

To quote is to give an author's words, either exactly, as in direct quotation, or in substance, as in indirect quotation; to cite is, etymologically, to call up a passage, as a witness is summoned.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

invoke How do we invoke a response from the computer?
mention We admired his wisdom, not to mention his courage.
refer Refer to the instructions to fix the refrigerator.
quote Tom wrote an inspirational quote on the chalkboard.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
cite		steady
invoke		rising
arraign		falling
mention		steady
refer		steady
adduce		falling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: say¹
4 letters: name¹, call¹
5 letters: refer², quote¹, evoke²
6 letters: credit², accuse², summon², advert², invoke², allege², adduce, abduce
7 letters: mention², extract², specify³, summons², excerpt², arraign²
8 letters: instance², citation³
9 letters: reference³, quotation³, enumerate⁴
14 letters: acknowledgment⁴
15 letters: acknowledgement⁴

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (refer² = 2 syllables).