elect

Definition of elect

Etymology

< Latin electus, pp. of eligere ("to pick out, choose, elect") < e ("out") + legere ("to pick out, pick, gather, collect, etc."); see legend.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US) ^[?]
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Noun

elect (uncountable)

1. (uncountable) (theology) In Calvinist theology, those foreordained to Heaven.

Antonyms

• reprobate

Verb

to elect (third-person singular simple present elects, present participle electing, simple past and past participle elected)

1. (transitive) To choose or make a decision (to do something)
2. (transitive) To choose (a candidate) in an election

Related terms

• election
• elective
• elite
• select
• selection
• selective

Adjective

elect (not comparable)

1. (used only after the noun) Who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.
   
   He is the President-elect.
   
   * 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 16
   She began almost to feel a dislike of Edward; and it ended, as every feeling must end with her, by carrying back her thoughts to Willoughby, whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect.

External links

• elect in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• elect in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911