general election

English

Noun

general election (plural general elections)

1. An election, usually held at regular intervals, in which candidates are elected in all or most constituencies or electoral districts of a nation.
   • 2023 May 31, Tammy Samuel, Fergus McLaverty, “The political picture: what lies ahead for Britain's railways?”, in RAIL, number 984, page 31:

     With a General Election under two years away (and if, by then, the Plan for Rail had already begun to be implemented), would it be efficient or worth implementing Labour's full nationalisation should it form a government?

2. (Cockney rhyming slang) An erection.

Coordinate terms

• (type of election): primary, special election

Translations

election held at regular intervals

• Arabic: انتخابات عامة m pl (intiḵābāt ʕāmma)
• Catalan: elecció general f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 大選／大选 (daai⁶ syun²)

  Hokkien: 大選／大选 (zh-min-nan) (tāi-soán)

  Mandarin: 大選／大选 (zh) (dàxuǎn)

• Danish: parlamentsvalg (da) n
• Dutch: algemene verkiezingen f pl
• Esperanto: ĝenerala balotado
• Finnish: parlamenttivaalit pl, eduskuntavaalit (fi)
• French: élections générales f pl
• Galician: elección xeral f
• Georgian: საყოველთაო არჩევნები (saq̇oveltao arčevnebi)
• German: allgemeine Wahlen f pl
• Hungarian: általános választás
• Indonesian: pemilihan umum (id)
• Irish: olltoghchán m
• Italian: elezioni generali f pl
• Japanese: 総選挙 (ja) (そうせんきょ, sōsenkyo)
• Javanese: pilihan umum
• Kannada: ಸಾರ್ವತ್ರಿಕ ಚುನಾವಣೆ (kn) (sārvatrika cunāvaṇe)
• Korean: 총선거 (chongseon'geo)
• Malay: pilihan raya umum (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: parlamentsvalg n

  Nynorsk: parlamentsval n

• Persian: انتخابات سراسری (fa) (entexâbât sarâsari)
• Polish: wybory powszechne pl
• Portuguese: eleição geral f
• Romanian: alegeri generale f pl
• Russian: всео́бщие вы́боры m pl (vseóbščije výbory)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: о̏пћӣ ѝзбори m pl

  Roman: ȍpćī ìzbor m pl

• Sinhalese: මහා මැතිවරණ (mahā mætiwaraṇa)
• Swedish: allmänt val (sv) n
• Thai: การเลือกตั้งทั่วไป (gaan-lʉ̂ʉak-dtâng-tûua-bpai)
• Turkish: genel seçim
• Urdu: عام انتخابات m pl (āmm intixābāt)
• Vietnamese: tổng tuyển cử (vi)
• Welsh: etholiad cyffredinol (cy) m

Further reading

• general election on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Eric Partridge (2005) “general election”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 853.