multicandidate

adjective

mul·​ti·​can·​di·​date ˌməl-tē-ˈkan-də-ˌdāt 

-ˌtī-,

-ˈka-nə-,

-dət

: involving more than two candidates

a multicandidate election

Examples of multicandidate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Senator Kelly Loeffler, the Republican appointed to replace Mr. Isakson, is in a multicandidate race with a host of other contenders. —Jonathan Martin, New York Times, 25 Sep. 2020

Georgia’s runoff law was created in the 1960s as a way to preserve white political power in a majority-white state and diminish the influence of Black politicians who could more easily win in a multicandidate race with a plurality of the vote, according to a report by the U.S. Interior Department. —Maya King, New York Times, 5 Dec. 2022

Senator’s win in a multicandidate field. —The Editorial Board, WSJ, 18 May 2022

Coming out of the clandestine meeting, though, there was an acknowledgment that changes to the process are needed, perhaps lowering the number of signatures needed or instituting some sort of runoff in multicandidate primary elections to ensure majority support for the winner. —Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Mar. 2021

And in a multicandidate field, the challenge of winning 50 percent of the vote to trigger winner-take-all rules may prove daunting. —Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 6 Mar. 2023

But, as Paleologos also noted, the 31% who still back Trump could be enough to win Republican primaries in a multicandidate field, which is how Trump won in 2016. —David Lautersenior Editor, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2022

Runoff elections are a hangover from Jim Crow-era laws meant to diminish the influence of Black politicians who could more easily win in a multicandidate race with a plurality of the vote. —Lisa Lerer, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2022

When the House decided the outcome of the multicandidate presidential election of 1824 in favor of the nationalist John Quincy Adams, Jackson supporters suspected corrupt machinations at work and cried foul. —Sam Rosenfeld, The New Republic, 15 Feb. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for multicandidate

• borosilicate
• decontaminate
• deoxycholate
• deteriorate
• differentiate
• diisocyanate
• dinoflagellate
• excommunicate
• incapacitate
• insubordinate
• intercorporate
• interpenetrate