adjective
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Etymology
Origin of electoral
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How does electoral compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The adjective electoral describes anything having to do with elections. When people talk about "electoral reform," they're referring to changing the way political elections work. When you see the word electoral, you can be sure that the subject is politics and elections. An electoral district, for example, is a specific geographic area that elects a representative or has its votes counted separately, and electoral fraud means rigging votes or interfering with the process of an election. Electoral comes from the noun elector, or "voter in an election." In Latin, it means "chooser or selector," from the root eligere, "select."
Vocabulary lists containing electoral
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.
The Prime Minister wasn’t humbled by his close brush with electoral defeat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Year: 2016 Compiled by: Jonathan L. Fischer, Ian Prasad Philbrick, and Daniel Hubbard Of note: The state represented at No. 1 has not given its electoral votes to a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026
The Election Commission says the revision is intended to remove duplicate and ineligible voters from electoral rolls.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has splashed out $9.6 million in cash on a sprawling Hamptons estate—nearly one year after the New York City mayoral primary that marked his return to electoral politics.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
Jefferson’s posture throughout the drawn-out counting of the electoral votes remained a combination of studied indifference and calculated obliviousness.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
