Other forms: eligibility, ineligible
You are eligible when you meet the conditions to be allowed in. Eligible to vote, eligible for the discount, eligible to apply. It is about the rules, not about deserving.
It nearly always takes for or to: eligible for a grant, eligible to enter. Do not confuse it with legible, which is about handwriting, or with illegible, its opposite. There is one older use that survives in phrases like an eligible bachelor — meaning a good catch — where the rules being met are the unwritten ones.
1adjectiveeligibleMeeting the conditions that allow you to do or receive something.~98%
“You are eligible for the refund if you kept the receipt.”
synonyms: qualified, entitled
2adjectivethoughtThought of as a desirable partner.~2%
“The most eligible bachelor in three counties.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 175 sentences found in the wild and placed 175 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: qualified
ELIGible → on the list for the ELECTion
The same root as an election: your name is on the list they will choose from, and most names never got onto it at all.
hooks ontoelection
From Latin eligere, to pick out — the same root as elect and election. An eligible person is one who can lawfully be chosen.
Proto-Indo-European
*leǵ-
Latin
eligibilis
Middle French
eligible
English, today
eligible
Built from
From Middle French eligible, from Latin eligibilis, from ēligō (“to select, to choose”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA