election

See also: élection and êlection

English

Etymology

From Middle English eleccioun, eleccion, from Anglo-Norman eleccioun, from Latin ēlectiōn-, stem of ēlectiō (“choice, selection”), from ēligō (“I pluck out, I choose”). Equivalent to elect +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

Noun

election (countable and uncountable, plural elections)

  1. A process of choosing a leader, members of parliament, councillors, or other representatives by popular vote.
    The parliamentary election(s) will be held in March.
    How did you vote in (UK also: at) the last election?
    • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:
      That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.
  2. The choice of a leader or representative by popular vote.
    The election of John Smith was due to his broad appeal.
  3. An option that is selected.
    W-4 election
  4. (archaic) Any conscious choice.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 20, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
      Whosoever searcheth all the circumstances and embraceth all the consequences thereof hindereth his election.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Followers and Friends”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      To use men with much difference and election is good.
    • 1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on The Pilgrim's Progress:
      The predestinative force of a free agent's own will in certain absolute acts, determinations, or elections, and in respect of which acts it is one either with the divine or the devilish will; and if the former, the conclusions to be drawn from God's goodness, faithfulness, and spiritual presence; these supply grounds of argument of a very different character […]
  5. (theology) In Calvinism, God's predestination of saints including all of the elect.
    • 1684, John Bunyan, A Holy Life, the Beauty of Christianity: Or, An Exhortation to Christians to be Holy, London: […] B. W. for Benj[amin] Alsop, […], →OCLC, page 3:
      [H]e [Paul] laboureth to comfort Timothy vvith the remembrance of the ſtedfaſtneſs of Gods eternal decree of Election, becauſe grounded on his foreknowledge; […]
  6. (obsolete) Those who are elected.

Synonyms

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See also

See also

Middle French

Noun

election f (plural elections)

  1. choice; selection (person, object that is selected)
  2. election (act or process of being elected to an office)
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