electorate

American  

[ih-lek-ter-it] / ɪˈlɛk tər ɪt /

noun

1. the body of persons entitled to vote in an election.

2. the dignity or territory of an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

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electorate British  

/ ɪˈlɛktərɪt /

noun

1. the body of all qualified voters

2. the rank, position, or territory of an elector of the Holy Roman Empire

3. the area represented by a Member of Parliament

4. the voters in a constituency

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Etymology

Origin of electorate

First recorded in 1665–75; elector + -ate ³

Explanation

An electorate is a body of people allowed to vote in an election. In the United States, when you turn eighteen, you may join the electorate and help choose a president. The word electorate is especially important for those people who are not a part of it. For instance, women in the United States were not part of the electorate until they were allowed to vote in 1920. Being a part of the electorate is important because it gives you a chance to elect — or choose — who you want to represent you in your government.

Example Sentences

“Voters will certainly be confused about the shifting district lines in two elections so close together in time,” Kim Nalder, director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State, said in an email.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 23, 2026

To Kim Nalder, who directs the Project for an Informed Electorate at Cal State Sacramento, the outcome reflects a deep ambivalence about using the machinery of government to snuff out a human life.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2021

In the early 1970s, Mr. Gans helped found the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, which later became part of American University’s Center for Democracy and Election Management.

From New York Times • Mar. 16, 2015

Mr. Gans became a political commentator and, in 1976, helped start the Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2015

There are the like Posts at the Gates of all the Towns, and even at the Villages in the Electorate of Saxony.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

Related Words

• constituency
• voter