candidate

[kan-di-deyt, -dit, kan-di-deyt] / ˈkæn dɪˌdeɪt, -dɪt, ˈkæn dɪˌdeɪt /

NOUN

person desiring political office, job

Synonyms

STRONGEST

applicant aspirant bidder competitor contender contestant nominee successor

STRONG

claimant entrant hopeful petitioner possibility pothunter runner seeker stumper suitor write-in

WEAK

dark horse favorite son handshaker job-hunter office seeker possible choice solicitant whistle-stopper

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Abigail Dow, an applied microeconomist and PhD candidate in economics at Boston University, underscored the correlation between childcare costs and people’s decisions to have children in a recent research paper.

From Salon • Apr. 18, 2026

Doncic, a leading candidate for most valuable player and a lock for his sixth All-NBA team, played in only 64 games before he suffered a regular-season ending left hamstring injury on April 2.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026

Beane was an unlikely candidate to become the face of perhaps the most important innovations baseball had seen.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

The valuation is incredibly cheap relative to the franchise—the stock trades at a single-digit earnings multiple—and Beacon itself would be a good acquisition candidate.

From Barron's • Apr. 16, 2026

The campaign apparatus existed exclusively to serve the candidate, not the spouse or the family.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Vocabulary lists containing candidate

Election Lingo

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Electoral Elocution: The Verbiage of Voting

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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 2

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