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Decide vs Elect - What's the difference?

decide | elect |

In transitive terms the difference between decide and elect

is that decide is to cause someone to come to a decision while elect is to choose (a candidate) in an election.

As a noun elect is

one chosen or set apart.

As an adjective elect is

who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.

decide

English

Verb

(decid)
  • To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
  • The election will be decided on foreign policies.
    We must decide our next move.
    Her last-minute goal decided the game.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
  • To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
  • You must decide between good and evil.
    I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
  • So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
  • To cause someone to come to a decision.
  • * 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
  • It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
  • (obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
  • * Fuller
  • Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * make up one's mind * choose * determine * pick

    elect

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • One chosen or set apart.
  • (uncountable, theology) In Calvinist theology, one foreordained to Heaven. In other Christian theologies, someone chosen by God for salvation.
  • * Bible, Isaiah xlii. 1
  • Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect , in whom my soul delighteth.
  • * Bible, Luke xviii. 7
  • Shall not God avenge his won elect ?

    Antonyms

    * reprobate

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To choose or make a decision (to do something)
  • To choose (a candidate) in an election
  • Adjective

    (-)
  • (used only after the noun) Who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.
  • He is the President-elect .
  • * 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 16
  • She began almost to feel a dislike of Edward; and it ended, as every feeling must end with her, by carrying back her thoughts to Willoughby, whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect .
  • Chosen; taken by preference from among two or more.
  • * Spenser
  • colours quaint elect
  • * Bible, 1 Timothy v. 21
  • the elect angels