candidate

noun

1. A person who seeks to be elected or appointed to a position or privilege.

   “Smith announced he was the party's candidate for the next election.”

   “All candidates who miss the deadline or make a spelling mistake in their applications are automatically rejected.”

   “Artiles, a Republican operative with a reputation for a foul mouth and sharp elbows, is accused of financing a sham candidate whose candidacy was intended to siphon votes from a legitimate Democratic candidate in a state Senate race in South Florida’s 37th District. The candidate has the same last name as then-Democratic incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez but did not actively campaign for the seat and has since admitted being recruited as a spoiler.”

2. (figuratively)A person who is thought likely or worthy to gain a position or privilege.
3. A participant in an examination.

   “Candidates must remain silent for the entirety of the exam.”

4. Someone or something likely or suited to undergo or be chosen for a purpose.

   “After being presented with various suitors, she decided none of the candidates were the kind of man she was looking for.”

   “In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.”

5. A student taking a degree who has finished the coursework but has other remaining requirements such as a dissertation.

   “a Ph.D. candidate”

6. The recipient of certain academic degrees, now mainly awarded in Scandinavia.
7. A gene which may play a role in a given disease.

verb

1. (uncommon)To stand as a candidate for an office, typically for a religious one.

   “The matter of candidating for a pulpit is not a matter of difference between congregations and Rabbis, but between Rabbis themselves.”

   “Furthermore, the fact that a school principal has only been in a large school six weeks does not prevent his candidating for principal of a larger school with larger salary.”

   “The report Shaping the Future also gives a set of learning outcomes for those people candidating for ordained ministry. These were also agreed by the Methodist Conference.”

2. (nonstandard, uncommon)To make or name (something) as a candidate (to be chosen or deemed suitable for a purpose).

   “Performance comparison of solar energy conversion candidated for SPS. (From NASA, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston 1977.)”

   “In this program if a processor becomes idle, then all feasible activities requiring that kind of processor will be candidated for scheduling. If the number of candidates is more than the number of available processors, activities with higher priority ...”

   “Evaluate the maintenance costs of the software system in order to candidate it for evolution AA14. Evaluate the hardware platform used and the possibility of migrating the software system toward more economical platforms ...”

3. (figuratively, obsolete, rare, transitive, uncommon)To make white; to whitewash.