Vote Meaning
/vəʊt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA formalized choice on legally relevant measures such as employment or appointment to office or a proceeding about a legal dispute.
nounAn act or instance of participating in such a choice, e.g., by submitting a ballot.
Sentence Examples
Now you've come of age, you have the right to vote.
Each man must cast a vote.
How did you vote at the last election?
CEFR Practice Quiz
Citizens will go to the polls to ____ for their preferred candidate.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please don't forget to ____ in the upcoming local election to express your opinion about several new policies today.
Word Origin & History
From Latin vōtum, a form of voveō (“to vow”) (cognate with Ancient Greek εὔχομαι (eúkhomai, “to vow”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wegʷʰ- (“to promise, to vow”). Doublet of vow.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Friday’s vote has permanently redefined the kilogram and sent Le Grand K into retirement."
— 2018 November 13, Matthew Robinson and Lianne Kolirin, “The world has just redefined the kilogram”, in CNN:
"There breathes no being but has some pretence / To that fine instinct called poetic sense; […] / The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land."
— 1862 [1836], Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “Poetry: A Metrical Essay”, in The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass.:: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 7–8:
"As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, but I would not go out of my way to protest against it. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. I would very gladly make mine over to him if I could."
— 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, page 01:
"It is important to ensure that shareholders who engage with an investee company by voting know whether their votes have been correctly taken into account. Confirmation of receipt of votes should be provided in the case of electronic voting. In addition, each shareholder who casts a vote in a general meeting should at least have the possibility to verify after the general meeting whether the vote has been validly recorded and counted by the company."
— Directive (EU) 2017/828 amending Directive 2007/36/EC, recital 10
"If you vote once, you're considered a good citizen. If you vote twice, you face four years in jail."
— 2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 158:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Citizens will go to the polls to ____ for their preferred candidate.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please don't forget to ____ in the upcoming local election to express your opinion about several new policies today.