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Prefer vs Elect - What's the difference?

prefer | elect | Synonyms |

Prefer is a synonym of elect.


As verbs the difference between prefer and elect

is that prefer is while elect is to choose or make a decision (to do something).

As a noun elect is

one chosen or set apart.

As an adjective elect is

(used only after the noun) who has been elected in a specified post, but has not yet entered office.

prefer

English

Alternative forms

* * preferre

Verb

(preferr)
  • *, II.3.2:
  • *:Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers.
  • (lb) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."
  • (lb) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").
  • *1630 , , True Travels , in Kupperman 1988, p.36:
  • *:one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King James.
  • *1817 , (Walter Scott), , XVII:
  • *:Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept.
  • Usage notes

    * The verb can be used in three different forms: *
  • prefer'' + noun + ''to'' (or ''over'') + noun. Example: ''I prefer coffee to tea .
  • *
  • prefer'' + gerund + ''to'' (or ''over'') + gerund. Example: ''I prefer skiing to swimming .
  • *
  • prefer'' + full infinitive + ''rather than'' + bare infinitive. Example: ''I prefer to eat fish rather than (eat) meat .
  • Derived terms

    * preference * preferential

    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