elect

One chosen or set apart.

Adjective

  1. Who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.
    • He is the President elect.
    • 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...
  2. Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more.
    • colours quaint elect - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
    • the elect angels - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 5:21:

Origin

Borrowed from Latin ēlēctus, past participle of ēligō (“to pick out, choose, elect”), from ē- (“out”) + legō (“to pick out, pick, gather, collect, etc.”); see legend. Cognate to eclectic, which is via Ancient Greek rather than Latin, hence prefix ἐκ (ek), rather than e- (from ex).

Noun

  1. One chosen or set apart.
  2. In Calvinist theology, one foreordained to Heaven. In other Christian theologies, someone chosen by God for salvation.
    • Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 42:1:
    • Shall not God avenge his won elect? - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 18:7:

Forms

elects elect

Antonyms

reprobate

Derived

president-elect

Verb

  1. To choose or make a decision (to do something).
  2. To choose (a candidate) in an election.
    • President Obama in a speech this past week said that we should solve the nation's bee problem. Oh, God, we elected a guy who sympathizes with bees? - 2014, Norm Macdonald Live, season 2, episode 9, spoken by Norm...

Forms

elects electing elected

Related

election elective elegant eligible elite select selection selective

Derived

could not get elected dogcatcher electability electable electee electocracy elector nonelect nonelected nonelecting preelect reelect self-elect unelect unelectability unelected