election

 Election on Wikipedia

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.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: ĭ-lĕk'shən, IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɛkʃ(ə)n/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /əˈlɛkʃ(ə)n/
• Hyphenation: elect‧ion
• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

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^[1]:

     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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 11:7:

     The election hath obtained it.

• (theology): chosenness

• direct election
• general election
• indirect election
• primary election
• snap election

• psephology

• Election on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Predestination on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

election f (plural elections)

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