ballot

1 of 2

noun

bal·​lot ˈba-lət 

1

a

: a small ball used in secret voting

b

: a sheet of paper used to cast a secret vote

2

a

: the action or system of secret voting

b

: the right to vote

c

: vote sense 1a

3

: the number of votes cast

4

: the drawing of lots

ballot

2 of 2

verb

balloted; balloting; ballots

intransitive verb

: to vote or decide by ballot

balloter noun

Did you know?

When people voted in ancient Athens, they dropped pebbles into an urn. Similarly, when voting was done by the people of Venice during the Renaissance, secrecy was assured by the use of little colored or marked balls. The Italian word for “little ball” is ballotta, from balla, meaning “ball,” and the diminutive suffix –otta. Now any kind of secret voting, by ball, piece of paper, or voting machine, is called a ballot. So is the right to vote itself.

Synonyms

Noun

• vote

Examples of ballot in a Sentence

Noun

They cast their votes in a secret ballot.

She was elected by secret ballot.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The legal landscape for drugs like MDMA and psilocybin (the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms) has opened up, thanks to a mix of legal ballot measures and Big Pharma investment. —John Semley, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2025

An Emerson College survey released Thursday shows 31% of Golden State voters who plan to cast a ballot in the June 2026 primary would support the former vice president over a wide-ranging field. —Phillip M. Bailey, USA Today, 18 Apr. 2025

Verb

Bondi filed a legal complaint at the time of the 2020 vote counting alleging that the Trump campaign was not allowed to stand close enough to ballot tabulators in Pennsylvania. —Kirby Wilson, Miami Herald, 15 Jan. 2025

Adding to the suspense and signaling Johnson's challenge ahead, a handful of GOP lawmakers-elect didn’t announce votes when their names were initially called during the first round of Friday's speaker balloting. —Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, 3 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Italian ballotta, from Italian dialect, diminutive of balla ball — more at balloon

First Known Use

Noun

1549, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1603, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing ballot

• absentee ballot
• Australian ballot
• ballot box
• cast one's ballot
• down-ballot
• on the ballot
• rig the ballot
• secret ballot
• short ballot
• stuff the ballot box

Rhymes for ballot

• alate
• fallot
• mallet
• palate
• palette
• pallet
• shallot

Kids Definition

ballot

1 of 2 noun

bal·​lot ˈbal-ət 

1

: a small ball or sheet of paper used to cast a secret vote

2

a

: the action or system of voting

b

: the right to vote

3

: the number of votes cast

ballot

2 of 2 verb

: to vote or decide by ballot

Etymology

Noun

from Italian ballotta "little ball (used in voting)," from balla "ball"

Word Origin

Small objects have long been used as a means of tallying votes. In ancient Greece, a word for "pebble," psēphos, came to designate any voting token, and then to mean simply "vote," from the practice of dropping a pebble into one of two urns as decisions were made in public assemblies. In medieval Venice, small balls were used in public lotteries and elections; in one such lottery, members of the city's Great Council would draw gold and silver balls from vases to determine nominating committees for officeholders. The word for "small ball" in the Venetian form of Italian was ballotta, which was extended to other tokens used in drawing lots and voting, such as scraps of linen or paper. Familiarity with Venetian customs led to the adoption of the word as ballot in English.