general election

noun

Updated on: 15 Apr 2018

: an election usually held at regular intervals in which candidates are elected in all or most constituencies of a nation or state

See general election defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of general election from the Web

The country is in the process of trying to form a coalition government after March 4 general elections resulted in a hung parliament with no party having enough votes to govern.

— alessandra migliaccio, Bloomberg.com, "EasyJet Is Said to Approach Alitalia With Air France, Cerberus," 10 Apr. 2018
The country is in the process of trying to form a coalition government after March 4 general elections resulted in a hung parliament with no party having enough votes to govern.

— Fortune, "EasyJet, Air France, and Cerberus Are Said to Approach Alitalia About a Possible Takeover," 10 Apr. 2018
The special general election in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, which covers much of the northwest Valley, is April 24.

— ronald j. hansen, azcentral, "New political ad stretches truth in Debbie Lesko vs. Hiral Tipirneni congressional race," 5 Apr. 2018
The reversal also serves as another strong indicator that a general election might be near.

— ruth eglash, Washington Post, "Netanyahu’s reversal on migrant resettlement plan suggests elections are near," 4 Apr. 2018
Allen’s path to the general election requires capturing the state’s supporters of President Trump.

— joe garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, "In SF, GOP candidate for governor Travis Allen takes a hard right and keeps going," 27 Mar. 2018
But by the time a general election comes along, people are pretty much set in their preferences.

— brian resnick, Vox, "Cambridge Analytica’s “psychographic microtargeting”: what’s bullshit and what’s legit," 23 Mar. 2018
Although the general election was quite close, neither party’s traditional procedures produced a candidate who could defeat Trump.

— david kaiser, Time, "How Early Warnings About the Effect of Television on American Politics Came True," 23 Mar. 2018
However, November’s general election largely could be a nonevent for many offices.

— bristow marchant, charlotteobserver, "How Supreme Court could shake up SC’s election map," 16 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'general election.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.