candidate
Americannoun
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candidates
plural
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a person who seeks an office, honor, etc..
a candidate for governor.
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a person who is selected by others as a contestant for an office, honor, etc.
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a person who is deserving of or seems destined for a certain end or fate.
Such a reckless spender is a candidate for the poorhouse.
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a student studying for a degree.
Candidates for the B.A. will have to meet certain minimum requirements.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a person seeking or nominated for election to a position of authority or honour or selection for a job, promotion, etc
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a person taking an examination or test
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a person or thing regarded as suitable or likely for a particular fate or position
this wine is a candidate for his cellar
Usage
What does candidate mean? Candidate most commonly means someone who’s seeking to be elected, hired, or appointed to a position, especially a political office or job. The word candidate most commonly refers to a politician seeking election or a person who has applied for a job. But it can be used in several other ways to refer to someone or something under consideration for some kind of treatment or status. Example: We have more than 100 applicants, but almost none of them are qualified candidates for this job.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of candidate
First recorded in 1605–15, candidate is from the Latin word candidātus “clothed in white” (adective), “candidate for office” (noun, in reference to the white togas worn by those seeking office); see candid, -ate 1
Explanation
A candidate is someone running for political office — or anyone being considered for a position or opportunity of some sort. When you hear about candidates, it's usually in discussions of politics. People are always wondering, "Who will be the candidates in the next Presidential election?" Every President, and every office-holder, was once a candidate. When you're a candidate, you raise money, hold rallies, make campaign promises, and do everything you can to win. You can also say someone is a candidate for a job, prize, and other things. Someone could jokingly say, "He's a candidate to be my next husband."
Vocabulary lists containing candidate
Election Lingo
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Electoral Elocution: The Verbiage of Voting
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Lead author and Monash PhD candidate Sam Foster from the School of Physics and Astronomy said the results create opportunities to investigate entirely new quantum states.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
Once a candidate clears those bars, their name will go to the General Assembly of all UN members for confirmation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Brook has not shown he has the maturity to do that part of the job, meaning Joe Root was the only candidate.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The candidate is a combination of an mRNA therapeutic vaccine and Merck’s cancer drug Keytruda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
At the meeting, Woodhull established the Equal Rights Party, which then nominated her as its candidate for president of the United States.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
In Arcadia, City Council candidates must be at least 18 years old, a California resident, a registered city voter and a resident of the district they seek to represent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Applications for the new Yorkshire and Humber scheme will open in October with successful candidates starting in September 2027.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
There are many candidates from the region, though Sall and Otunnu hail from Africa.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
The two candidates spent much of the night skewering each other over their respective track records.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Jackie Cochran would not be one of the test candidates.
From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson
After a little rest and some candidating for a church, I took a small parish at Highland Falls, about a mile from West Point, New York, entering on my labors in January, 1866.
From Taken Alive by Edward Payson Roe
I don't believe in candidating, and I can't be accessory to it.
From Laicus; Or, the Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish. by Lyman Abbott
He once told me of an early experience in candidating.
From A Backward Glance at Eighty Recollections & comment by Charles A. (Charles Albert) Murdock
It was when I was candidating for my first parish that I preached at a little village down in Pennsylvania.
From Harper's Round Table, October 1, 1895 by Various
When we think of it, what a ghoulish business "candidating" is!
From The Warriors by Anna Robertson Brown Lindsay
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
