Word.ws English Dictionary

paper candidates

paper candidates is the plural of paper candidate.

Meaning of paper candidate

Noun

paper candidate (plural paper candidates)

  1. An election candidate with little chance of winning, who runs a minimal or no campaign, and who is added to the ballot for publicity, to increase the number of candidates standing and/or try to ensure their party has a candidate in every electoral district.
    • Mr. Kent. I never knew of any actual Democratic opponent to a Republican candidate for Congress in Philadelphia for a number of years, but there may have been some "paper candidate" set up.1928, James M. Beck Election Case, First District of Pennsylvania: Hearings before the Committee on Elections No. 2, House of Representatives, Seventieth Congress, First Session: By Authority of...

Questions about paper candidates

What is paper candidates the plural of?
Paper candidates is the plural of paper candidate.

Words near paper candidates in the dictionary

  1. paper board
  2. paper boards
  3. paper book
  4. paper books
  5. paper candidate
  6. paper candidates
  7. paper cartridge
  8. paper cartridges
  9. paper case
  10. paper cases
  11. paper ceiling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paper candidates (page history and authors); paper candidate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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