Other forms: candidates
A candidate is a person putting themselves forward to be chosen — for a job, a seat in parliament, a place on a course. The name on the ballot paper. The nervous one in a suit outside the interview room, going over an answer.
Candidate takes FOR: a candidate for the leadership, a candidate for the post. In British schools and universities it is also the plain word for someone sitting an exam — candidates must not turn over the paper — and a PhD candidate is someone working towards that degree. It stretches to things as well as people: the old wing is a candidate for demolition, and he is a candidate for surgery if the pain gets worse. Two relatives worth knowing: candidacy, the state of standing for something, and candid, which shares the same root and means frank.
1nouncandidateA person competing to be chosen for a job or a public office.
“Four candidates were shortlisted for the post.”
2nounentrantA person sitting an examination.
“Candidates should write their number at the top of every sheet.”
synonyms: entrant, examinee
3nouncaseA person or thing that is a likely case for something.
“The old wing of the hospital is a candidate for demolition.”
4nounworkingA person working towards a degree, especially a doctorate.
“She is a doctoral candidate in Uppsala.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
candidate is a person under consideration.
Candidate is Latin candidātus, 'a person standing for public office', from candidus, white. A Roman seeking office walked the forum in a toga bleached brilliant white, a badge of purity worn where everyone could see it. The same root gives us candid, so the candidate and the candid answer are both, in the old sense, white.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kend-
Latin
candidātus — a person who is standing for public office
English, today
candidate
From Latin candidātus (“a person who is standing for public office”), from candidus + -ātus, -āta, -ātum, in reference to Roman candidates wearing bleached white togas as a symbol of purity at a public forum. by surface analysis, candid + -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA