Evaluate—Wolfram Documentation

causes expr to be evaluated even if it appears as the argument of a function whose attributes specify that it should be held unevaluated.

Details

You can use Evaluate to override HoldFirst etc. attributes of built‐in functions.
Evaluate only overrides HoldFirst etc. attributes when it appears directly as the head of the function argument that would otherwise be held. »

Examples

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Basic Examples (1)

Scope (1)

Applications (3)

Unprotect a system symbol to make a definition for it:

Restore protection:

Force evaluation of the right-hand side of a delayed definition:

Build a function from an expression:

Properties & Relations (3)

Possible Issues (1)

Evaluate works only on the first level, directly inside a held function:

History

Introduced in 1991 (2.0)

Wolfram Research (1991), Evaluate, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (1991), Evaluate, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 1991. "Evaluate." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (1991). Evaluate. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_evaluate, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Evaluate}", year="1991", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html}", note=[Accessed: 22-February-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_evaluate, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Evaluate}, year={1991}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Evaluate.html}, note=[Accessed: 22-February-2026]}