Word Direct Answers

What does "election" mean?

Election: The act of choosing a person to fill an office, or to membership in a society, as by ballot, uplifted hands, or viva voce; as, the election of a president or a mayor. Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom. J. Adams.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Power of choosing; free will; liberty to choose or act. "By his own election led to ill." Daniel.
  2. 3.Discriminating choice; discernment. [Obs.] To use men with much difference and election is good. Bacon.
  3. 4.(Theol.) Divine choice; predestination of individuals as objects of mercy and salvation; -- one of the "five points" of Calvinism. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. Rom. xi.
  4. 5.6. (Law) The choice, made by a party, of two alternatives, by taking one of which, the chooser is excluded from the other.
  5. 6.Those who are elected. [Obs.] The election hath obtained it. Rom. xi.
  6. 7.To contest an election. See under Contest. -- To make one's election, to choose. He has made his election to walk, in the main, in the old paths. Fitzed. Hall.

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