Reelection

How to spell reelection

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reelection

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reelection mean?

1. nounThe act of electing again a person who already holds an office.

Reelection in a sentence

• The mayor announced her campaign for reelection in the autumn.

• The senator's reelection depended heavily on turnout in the suburbs.

Where does reelection come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word combines the prefix re-, meaning 'again', with election, which traces back to the Latin electio, a noun formed from eligere, meaning 'to pick out' or 'to choose'. That verb was itself built from ex-, meaning 'out', and legere, meaning 'to gather, read, or choose', so the literal idea was choosing someone out of a group. English took election through Old French in the 1300s, originally for the act of selecting a person for office or even for divine choosing in a religious sense. The re- compound, meaning a fresh election of someone already in post, came later as representative government grew, becoming common in the 1700s and 1800s. The spelling trap is the run of two e's at the seam where re- meets elect: writers are unsure whether to write one e, two e's, or insert a hyphen, and the closed form reelection keeps both e's side by side.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• elect (from Latin eligere: to pick out, choose)
• -ion (noun of action)