"Provocate" is what we call a "back-formation". This happens when someone creates a verb from a noun (provocation), without thinking if there's already a verb (provoke). Be really careful about these, as it's a fairly easy way to make a mistake this way. They're pretty clumsy-sounding things. Check first if a verb already exists, if you can.

Provoke = to deliberately incite someone else to action, usually rash, angry action. For example: He tried to provoke the teacher by swearing at her. There is no such word as provocate.

首先一点，你要明白，provoke 是动词。而provocate这个单词在词霸存在，给的词性是动词，这是非常不负责任的。在牛津字典中根本没有provocate这个单词，只有provocation 和provocative，名词和形容词的词性。因此，根本不用进行区分。就像你问我，“一” 和“1”到底有什么区别。我是真的回答不上来。