Word.ws English Dictionary

psephology

/sɪˈfɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/US/sɪˈfɑl.ə.d͡ʒi/

psephology noun: the predictive or statistical study of elections.

Noun

psephology (uncountable)

  1. The predictive or statistical study of elections.
    • It therefore seems appropriate to preface this book with a discussion of why elections merit study and an examination of how much has been or can be learnt from psephology.1952, D. E. Butler, The British general election of 1951
  2. An ancient Greek method of numerology, similar to gematria.
    • Let us first see how the matter of this letter-numbering or psephology stands generally. The authors think that both the Greek and Hebrew method derive from a common source. But there is no proof of this; indeed the weak point in the whole of this exposition is that they entirely neglect the...1917, The Quest – Volume 8, Part 2, page 698
    • The numbers 99, 88, and 22 seem to belong to some system of mystic psephology, Or gematria as the Kabbalists afterwards called it.1924, George Robert Stow Mead, Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandæan John-Book, Together with Studies on John and Christian Origins, the Slavonic Josephus' Account of John and Jesus...

psephology meaning in Persian, Thai and Myanmar

psephology in Persian

the predictive or statistical study of elections
انتخاباتپژوهی entexâbât-pažuhi

psephology in Thai

the predictive or statistical study of elections
วิทยาการเลือกตั้ง wít-tá-yaa-gaan-lʉ̂ʉak-dtâng

psephology in Myanmar

the predictive or statistical study of elections
ဝရဏဗေဒ wa.ra.na.beda.

Origin of psephology

From psepho- (“pebble”) + -ology (“study of”), drawing on the various definitions of Ancient Greek ψῆφος (psêphos, “pebble used for reckoning; pebble used for casting a vote”). The sense relating to elections was coined in 1948 by Frank Hardie.

Words formed from psephology

Questions about psephology

What does psephology mean?
Psephology means the predictive or statistical study of elections.
What is psephology in Persian?
Psephology in Persian is انتخاباتپژوهی (entexâbât-pažuhi). See Psephology meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is psephology?
Psephology is a noun.
How do you pronounce psephology?
Psephology is pronounced /sɪˈfɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/ (UK).

Words near psephology in the dictionary

  1. psephocratic
  2. psephological
  3. psephologically
  4. psephologist
  5. psephologists
  6. psephology
  7. psephomancy
  8. psephyte
  9. psephytes
  10. psephytic
  11. PSes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: psephology (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-psephology.wav.

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