Elective Meaning
/ɪˈlɛktɪv/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options.
adjOpen to choice; freely chosen; (also, usually) unnecessary; minor.
Sentence Examples
At our high school, French is an elective.
French is an elective.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
She chose an ____ course on astronomy rather than the required biology class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
At our high school, French is an ____.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree English elect Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Old French -ifbor. Middle English -yf English -ive English elective From elect + -ive.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Man thus endued with an elective voice,
Must be supplied with objects of his choice."
— 1782, William Cowper, “The Progress of Error”, in Poems,, London: J. Johnson, page 43:
"[…] they rested their hopes of redress on the independent use of their elective franchise;"
— 1854, George Bancroft, chapter 35, in History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent,, volume 6, Boston: Little, Brown, page 185:
"See the populace, millions upon millions, handsome, tall, muscular, both sexes, clothed in easy and dignified clothes―teaching, commanding, marrying, generating, equally electing and elective;"
— 1860, Walt Whitman, “Proto-Leaf”, in Leaves of Grass, Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, page 21:
"[…] his Lordship is deceived if he think any spontaneous action after once being checked in it, differs from an action voluntary and elective, for even the setting of a mans foot, in the posture for walking, and the action of ordinary eating was once deliberated of how and when it should be done, and though afterward it became easie & habitual so as to be done without fore-thought, yet that does not hinder but that the act is voluntary and proceedeth from election."
— 1654, Thomas Hobbes, Of Libertie and Necessitie, London: F. Eaglesfield, pages 12–13:
"[Her friends] are, after all, her elective siblings who have distanced themselves from the ways of the past, their families […]"
— 2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup, Toronto: Viking, page 23:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She chose an ____ course on astronomy rather than the required biology class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
At our high school, French is an ____.