elects

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of elect.

   The board elects its officers at the first meeting of the year.

   Each region elects representatives to the national assembly.

   Note

   One spelling, two constructions. Followed by an infinitive, it means deciding on a course of action: she elects to stay. Followed by a noun, it means voting someone into a post: the club elects a treasurer. Both are transitive, so something always follows the verb. The same letters also spell the noun plural, which is the rarer use by far.

   She elects to remain silent rather than answer the charge.

   If the tenant elects to renew, the rent stays the same.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of elect. Rare: the collective the elect is far more usual.

   Note

   A plural the language seldom needs. The noun usually appears as a collective, the elect. That can mean those chosen or set apart in general, or those that Calvinist theology holds foreordained to Heaven. It takes an -s only when individual chosen persons are counted one by one. Don't mistake it for the verb form spelled the same way: the board elects, but the elects assembled.

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