KJV Dictionary Definition: elect

elect

ELECT', v.t. L. electus, from eligo; e or ex and lego; Gr. to choose.

1. Properly, to pick out; to select from among two or more, that which is preferred. Hence,

2. To select or take for an office or employment; to choose from among a number; to select or manifest preference by vote or designation; as, to elect a representative by ballot or viva voce; to elect a president or governor.

3. In theology, to designate, choose or select as an object of mercy or favor.

4. To choose; to prefer; to determine in favor of.

ELECT', a. Chosen, taken by preference from among two or more. Hence,

1. In theology, chosen as the object of mercy; chosen, selected or designated to eternal life; predestinated in the divine counsels.

2. Chosen, but no inaugurated, consecrated or invested with office; as bishop elect; emperor elect; governor or mayor elect. But in the scriptures, and in theology, this word is generally used as a noun.

ELECT', n. One chosen or set apart; applied to Christ.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. Is. 42.

1. Chosen or designated by God to salvation; predestinated to glory as the end, and to sanctification as the means; usually with a plural signification, the elect.

Shall not God avenge his own elect? Luke 18.

If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matt.24.

He shall send his angels--and they shall gather his elect from the four winds. Matt.24.

2. Chosen; selected; set apart as a peculiar church and people; applied to the Israelites. Is.45.

elected

ELECT'ED, pp. Chosen; preferred; designated to office by some act of the constituents, as by vote; chosen or predestinated to eternal life.

electing

ELECT'ING, ppr. Choosing; selecting from a number; preferring; designating to office by choice or preference; designating or predestinating to eternal salvation.

election

ELEC'TION, n. L. electio. The act of choosing; choice; the act of selecting one or more from others. Hence appropriately,

1. The act of choosing a person to fill an office or employment, by any manifestation of preference, as by ballot, uplifted hands or viva voce; as the election of a king, of a president, or a mayor.

Corruption in elections is the great enemy of freedom.

2. Choice; voluntary preference; free will; liberty to act or not. It is at his election to accept or refuse.

3. Power of choosing or selecting.

4. Discernment; discrimination; distinction.

To use men with much difference and election is good.

5. In theology, divine choice; predetermination of God, by which persons are distinguished as objects of mercy, become subjects of grace, are sanctified and prepared for heaven.

There is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Rom.11.

6. The public choice of officers.

7. The day of a public choice of officers.

8. Those who are elected.

The election hath obtained it. Rom.11.

elective

ELECT'IVE, a. Dependent on choice, as an elective monarchy, in which the king is raised to the throne by election; opposed to hereditary.

1. Bestowed or passing by election; as an office is elective.

2. Pertaining to or consisting in choice or right of choosing; as elective franchise.

3. Exerting the power of choice; as an elective act.

4. Selecting for combination; as elective attraction, which is a tendency in bodies to unite with certain kinds of matter in preference to others.

electively

ELECT'IVELY, adv. By choice; with preference of one to another.