# elect

Pronunciation: say "i-LEKT" /ɪˈlɛkt/

## Verb

1. To choose a candidate for an office by voting in an election.
   - Simple: To choose a person for a job or office by voting.
   - _Citizens elect representatives to make laws on their behalf._
   - _The committee elected a new chairperson at yesterday's meeting._
3. To choose or decide to do something, especially after weighing the available options.
   - Simple: To decide to do something, often after thinking about your choices.
   - _Many graduates elect to continue their studies abroad._
   - _He elected early retirement after thirty years at the firm._

## Adjective

2. Describing someone who has won an election to a post but has not yet taken office, placed after the title it describes.
   - Simple: Already chosen for a job by voting, but not yet started in it.
   - _The mayor elect outlined her priorities before the inauguration._
   - _As senator elect, he began assembling his staff._
5. Chosen by preference from among two or more; specially selected.
   - Simple: Picked out as special and chosen from a group of others.
   - _For decades the society stayed an elect circle, open only to scholars the founders themselves had invited._
   - _He belonged to an elect circle of advisers close to the king._

## Noun

4. In Christian belief, a person chosen by God for salvation.
   - Simple: A person whom God has chosen to be saved.
   - _The preacher taught that the elect were known to God before birth._
   - _She hoped to be numbered among the elect on the day of judgment._
6. A person chosen or set apart from the rest.
   - Simple: A person who has been specially chosen or set apart from others.
   - _The elect gathered in the inner chamber, kept apart from the crowd._
   - _He counted himself one of the elect, handpicked for the expedition._

## Origin

Borrowed from Latin ēlēctus, the past participle of ēligō ("to pick out, choose, elect"), formed from ē- ("out") plus legō ("to pick out, gather, collect"). It is cognate with eclectic, which came instead through Ancient Greek.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/elect (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).