Voter

How to spell voter

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce voter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does voter mean?

1. nounA person who is entitled to vote or who casts a vote in an election.

Voter in a sentence

• Every registered voter received a polling card in the post.

• The candidate spent the afternoon meeting each undecided voter on the high street.

Where does voter come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin votum, which literally meant 'a vow' or 'a solemn promise made to a god', and by extension 'a wish' or 'a desire'. From votum came the verb 'vote', which entered English in the 1400s in the sense of expressing a fervent wish or earnest desire, only later narrowing to the modern political meaning of formally registering a choice or preference. The agent noun 'voter', meaning a person who casts a vote, was formed in English by adding the familiar '-er' ending that marks the doer of an action, as in 'writer' or 'singer'. The same votum root surfaces in 'vow', 'devote', and 'votive', the last describing a candle lit as an offering of one's wishes. For spelling, the trap is the long 'o' sound followed by a single 't': it is voter, not 'votter', because the silent final 'e' of 'vote' lengthens the vowel rather than doubling the consonant.

How the word is built

• vot- (from Latin votum: vow, wish)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)