different between optional vs elective

English

Etymology

option +? -al

Adjective

optional (not comparable)

1. Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.

   Synonyms: facultative; see also Thesaurus:optional

   Antonyms: compulsory, mandatory, obligatory; see also Thesaurus:compulsory

Antonyms

• non-optional, nonoptional

Related terms

• option
• optionality
• optionally

Translations

Noun

optional (plural optionals)

1. Something that is not compulsory, especially part of an academic course.
2. (programming, sometimes capitalized) In various programming languages, a kind of variable that is assigned a specific data type but may or may not hold an actual value.
   • 2015, Richard M Reese, Learning Java Functional Programming, Packt Publishing Ltd (?ISBN), page 147:

     In functional languages, there is a data type called the option type, also called the maybe type. Its purpose is to encapsulate a value, which is returned from a function. […] In Java 8, the Optional class has been added to serve as an option type.

Anagrams

• Politano

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pts??o?na?l/
• Hyphenation: op?ti?o?nal

Adjective

optional (not comparable)

1. optional

Declension

Further reading

• “optional” in Duden online

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English optional.

Noun

optional m (invariable)

1. optional accessory
2. handicap (horse racing)

Anagrams

• pilotano

English

Etymology

elect +? -ive

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?kt?v/
• Rhymes: -?kt?v

Adjective

elective (comparative more elective, superlative most elective)

1. Of, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options.

   Synonym: electoral

   Antonyms: appointive, hereditary

   • 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil […] translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, dedicatory preface to the Marquess of Normanby,^[2]

     For his Conscience could not but whisper to the Arbitrary Monarch, that the Kings of Rome were at first Elective, and Govern’d not without a Senate:

   • 1782, William Cowper, “The Progress of Error” in Poems, London: J. Johnson, p. 43,^[3]

     Man thus endued with an elective voice,

     Must be supplied with objects of his choice.

   • 1854, George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent, Boston: Little, Brown, Volume 6, Chapter 35, p. 185,^[4]

     […] they rested their hopes of redress on the independent use of their elective franchise;

   • 1860, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, “Proto-Leaf,” p. 21,^[5]

     See the populace, millions upon millions, handsome, tall, muscular, both sexes, clothed in easy and dignified clothes?teaching, commanding, marrying, generating, equally electing and elective;

   • 1896, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, “The South African Question” in Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, Madras: G.A. Natesan, 3rd edition, 1922, p. 6,^[6]

     [The bill] says that no natives of countries (not of European origin) which have not hitherto possessed elective representative institutions […] shall be placed on the voters roll […]

2. Open to choice; freely chosen.

   Synonyms: discretionary, optional, voluntary

   Antonyms: compulsory, mandatory, obligatory, required, involuntary

   • 1654, Thomas Hobbes, Of Libertie and Necessitie, London: F. Eaglesfield, pp. 12-13,^[7]

     […] his Lordship is deceived if he think any spontaneous action after once being checked in it, differs from an action voluntary and elective, for even the setting of a mans foot, in the posture for walking, and the action of ordinary eating was once deliberated of how and when it should be done, and though afterward it became easie & habitual so as to be done without fore-thought, yet that does not hinder but that the act is voluntary and proceedeth from election.

   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son, and T. Cadell, Volume 5, Book 9, Chapter 8, pp. 160-161,^[8]

     “You know not then,” said Cecilia, in a faint voice, “my inability to comply?”

     “Your ability, or inability, I presume are elective?”

     “Oh no!—my power is lost!—my fortune itself is gone!”

   • 2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup, Toronto: Viking, p. 23,^[9]

     [Her friends] are, after all, her elective siblings who have distanced themselves from the ways of the past, their families […]

   • 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, New York: Knopf, Chapter 38, p. 346,^[10]

     “ […] That blog is a game that you don’t really take seriously, it’s like choosing an interesting elective evening class to complete your credits.”

   • 2019, Dave Eggers, The Parade, New York: Vintage, p. 130,

     Now some adventuring imbecile had acquired an elective sickness and was paying its price.

Related terms

• elect
• election

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

elective (plural electives)

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

Translations

Anagrams

• cleveite

References