Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use elective in a sentence

14 example sentences · adjective, noun

Elective means of, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options. Example: “After accounting for all of my required courses, there is hardly any room in my schedule for any elective ones.”

Examples of elective by meaning

adjectiveOpen to choice; freely chosen; (also, usually) unnecessary; minor.

  • After accounting for all of my required courses, there is hardly any room in my schedule for any elective ones.
  • Now some adventuring imbecile had acquired an elective sickness and was paying its price.2019, Dave Eggers, The Parade, New York: Vintage, page 130

adjectiveScheduled and nonemergent (regardless of whether necessary or unnecessary and whether minor or serious).

  • It was very confusing hearing my cancer surgery being classified as "elective surgery". Am I "electing" to live rather than die?
  • "However, all ‘elective’ means is it's a scheduled surgery with work-up done before that.2024 January 9, Dan Lamothe, Matt Viser, Fenit Nirappil, Missy Ryan, “Austin treated for prostate cancer before emergency, Pentagon...

nounSomething that is an option or may be freely chosen, especially a course of study.

  • I still need to decide which electives to take along with my compulsory courses next semester.

More sentences with elective

  • The elective class was easy, but in the end I was shortchanging myself by taking it.From the entry shortchange
  • Besides, Sadler's husband would perform an elective lungectomy on John if he ran around making that claim.2017, Lyn Gala, Tap-Dancing the Minefields, →ISBN. From the entry lungectomy
  • Fortunately, there were nonprerequisite accounting subjects and electives that I included in the enrollment.2012, Edgardo G. Calansingin, In Retrospection: I Made It by a Long, Long Shot, →ISBN, page 94. From the entry nonprerequisite
  • The parents of elective mutists often feel alienated from one another.1999, Sheila Spasaro, Charles E. Schaefer, Refusal to Speak: Treatment of Selective Mutism in Children, page 199. From the entry mutist
  • Throughout American higher education, Western Civilization courses tempered electives and various Chinese menus of distribution requirements.1994, Philip G. Altbach, Robert Oliver Berdahl, Patricia J. Gumport, Higher education in American society. From the entry Chinese menu
  • In retrospect, Sǒ's unqualified championship of the elective principle may seem somewhat naive.1991, Vipan Chandra, “Korean Human-Rights Consciousness in an Era of Transition: A Survey of Late Nineteenth-Century Developments”, in…. From the entry émigré
  • One obstetrical limitation is the fact that elective Caesarean section was performed due to management challenges with HD.2015 November 17, “Got Milk? Breastfeeding and Milk Analysis of a Mother on Chronic Hemodialysis”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry secundipara
  • It is a premise of elective government, where free people are the voters, that these principles be observed by whoever is elected.1995, John Aneurin Grey Griffith, Public Law, Stevens & Sons, page 90. From the entry psephocracy
  • I clearly recall chafing at what I perceived as the wifty-wafty aspects of this concept, just as I chafed at the humanity electives I was required to take.2010, CeCelia R. Zorn, Becoming a Nurse Educator: Dialogue for an Engaging Career, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page ix. From the entry wifty-wafty

Meaning of elective

  1. adjective Of, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options.
  2. adjective Open to choice; freely chosen; (also, usually) unnecessary; minor.
  3. adjective Scheduled and nonemergent (regardless of whether necessary or unnecessary and whether minor or serious).

Full definition of elective

Questions about elective in a sentence

How do you use elective in a sentence?
Elective is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “After accounting for all of my required courses, there is hardly any room in my schedule for any elective ones.”
What is a short sentence with elective?
“The parents of elective mutists often feel alienated from one another.”
What does elective mean?
Elective means of, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: elective (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use elective in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/elective. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.