elective.

1. Chosen rather than compulsory or urgently necessary.

2. Chosen through voting rather than appointment.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• elective course
• elective surgery

On the page

She combined required modules with an elective course in ethics.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Normally non-gradable; no ordinary comparative or superlative. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.