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Elective vs Voluntary - What's the difference?

elective | voluntary |

As adjectives the difference between elective and voluntary

is that elective is of, or pertaining to voting or elections while voluntary is done, given, or acting of one's own free will.

As nouns the difference between elective and voluntary

is that elective is something that is option or that may be elected, especially a course of tertiary study while voluntary is a short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument.

As an adverb voluntary is

voluntarily.

elective

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, or pertaining to voting or elections
  • That involves a choice between options; optional or discretionary
  • My insurance wouldn't pay for the operation because it was elective surgery.
  • * Bancroft
  • The independent use of their elective franchise.
  • * Dryden
  • Kings of Rome were at first elective

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that is option or that may be elected, especially a course of tertiary study.
  • voluntary

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Done, given, or acting of one's own free will.
  • * N. W. Taylor
  • That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action is the true principle of orthodoxy.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • She fell to lust a voluntary prey.
  • Done by design or intention; intentional.
  • If a man accidentally kills another by lopping a tree, it is not voluntary manslaughter.
  • Working or done without payment.
  • Endowed with the power of willing.
  • * Hooker
  • God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary , agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him.
  • Of or relating to voluntaryism.
  • a voluntary church, in distinction from an established or state church

    Synonyms

    * discretionary * optional * willful * volitional

    Antonyms

    * compulsory * involuntary * obligatory

    Derived terms

    * voluntarily

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Voluntarily.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
  • *:And all that els was pretious and deare, / The sea unto him voluntary brings [...].
  • Noun

    (voluntaries)
  • (music) A short piece of music, often having improvisation, played on a solo instrument
  • A volunteer