elective
An elective is a course or activity that you can choose to do instead of taking something else.
When it comes to school, electives are often subjects like art, music, or sports that students pick as part of their schedule. For example, if you're in high school and you want to learn photography, you might take an elective class on photography. You'd choose this instead of another subject, so it's not something you have to do.
How common is "elective"?
It appears most frequently in academic texts and less often in other writings.
adjective
Of, or pertaining to voting or elections; involving a choice between options.
Example: 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil […] translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, dedicatory preface to the Marquess of Normanby, For his Conscience could not but whisper to the Arbitrary Monarch, that the Kings of Rome were at first Elective, and Govern’d not without a Senate:
Real examples of "elective" in context
