What does reelect mean?
Reelect means to elect a person to the same office or position again, usually after they have completed an earlier term. The word is especially common in political reporting, where it describes voters returning an incumbent to office, but it can also refer to the repeated selection of someone for a committee, chairmanship, or other responsibility. Reelect differs from elect because it explicitly indicates a second or subsequent choice, while ordinary election does not necessarily imply that the person has previously held the office. The verb is transitive and commonly takes a person as its object, as in “the members reelected her chair.” Its form is more formal and institutional than the phrasal alternatives “choose again” or “vote back in,” making it particularly useful in civic and organizational contexts. The related noun reelection names the act or result of choosing someone again.
verbTo elect someone to an office or position again, especially after a previous term. It can also mean to choose or appoint someone a second time.
- To elect someone to an office or position again after a previous term.
- To choose or appoint someone again for a role or responsibility.
"Voters reelected the mayor for a second four-year term."
"The senator was reelected with overwhelming support."
"After the board voted her out, the directors reelected her chairwoman."
Reelect means the same democratic ritual, repeated: the voters return the same person to the same office.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does reelect come from?
Reelect combines the prefix re-, meaning again, with elect, a word borrowed from Latin eligere, meaning to choose or select. The sense of choosing again developed from that combination, with the modern verb commonly used for repeated elections to public or institutional offices. Elect has related forms in English such as election, eligible, and elective, all reflecting the same Latin root.
Related word forms
How reelect is actually used
Usually used in political, institutional, or organizational contexts. The spelling is generally reelect in American English and re-elect is also widely used, especially in British English.
Easily confused with reelect
Reelect and re-elect are variant spellings of the same word, although the hyphenated form is common in British usage and the unhyphenated form is standard in American usage.
Elect means to choose someone for a position for the first time, whereas reelect means to choose them again after they have already held the position.