election Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a vote to select the winner of a position or political office
    • the results of the election will be announced tonight
  2. noun the act of selecting someone or something; the exercise of deliberate choice
    • her election of medicine as a profession
  3. noun the status or fact of being elected
    • they celebrated his election
  4. noun the predestination of some individuals as objects of divine mercy (especially as conceived by Calvinists)

WordNet

E*lec"tion noun
Etymology
F. élection, L. electio, fr. eligere to choose out. See Elect, a.
Definitions
  1. The act of choosing; choice; selection.
  2. 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.
  3. Power of choosing; free will; liberty to choose or act. "By his own election led to ill." Daniel.
  4. Discriminating choice; discernment. Obs.
    To use men with much difference and election is good. Bacon.
  5. (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. 5.
  6. (Law) The choice, made by a party, of two alternatives, by taking one of which, the chooser is excluded from the other.
  7. Those who are elected. Obs.
    The election hath obtained it. Rom. xi. 7.
    He has made his election to walk, in the main, in the old paths. Fitzed. Hall.

Webster 1913