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delegate

delegate

572 4.1
A person chosen to represent a group at a meeting or conference
  • noun
  • /ˈdɛlɪɡɪt/
: delegado
  • However, several questions remained that delegates did not have the opportunity to explore.
  • convention delegate
  • conference delegate
  • delegates voted

There's something to be said for an entire sweep of delegates across the nation.

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Examples

  • Fellow delegates, our candidate is in the press room and will be joining us shortly.

  • "Nearly four billion people," added the Vietnamese delegate, sitting to the right of the Chinese.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The vote of all the delegates has been recorded.

  • By the next year, Long was a delegate to a Republican county convention.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The Conference of Parties is an assembly of delegates from every nation on the globe.

  • I am Zoraida Munoz, a delegate for the musicians' union.

  • I'm a union delegate.

  • There, activists theatrically ripped up the official delegates' disappointing draft agreement.

    Academic text (2012)
  • CAIR claimed that more than one hundred Muslims were serving as delegates, quadruple the number in 2004.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The vote of all the delegates has been recorded.

Synonyms

representative
vsdelegate
624 3.5

A person who speaks or acts for other people in an official way

is chosen or elected to represent a group at meetings
superdelegate
vsdelegate
  • Jargon
34 9.3

A party leader or official who can vote for any candidate at a convention without following primary results

is chosen or elected through normal group selection processes
2 3.7

A person elected by workers to speak for them in talks with managers

represents groups broadly, not only labor negotiations
subdelegate
vsdelegate
  • Formal
8.4

A person chosen by a main representative to act for them

is chosen or elected directly by a group to act at meetings
representer
vsdelegate
5.5

A person who speaks for someone or a group

is chosen or elected to represent a group at meetings

Compounds

9.9

A person the Pope sends to represent the Vatican in a country with no official relations

9.1

A union representative who visits workplaces to check that agreements with employers are kept

How Senior

head
∞ 2.2
representative
624 3.5
delegate
572 4.1
observer
305 2.8

Surface Forms

delegate singular
delegates plural

Etymology

Delegate comes from the Latin parts de- and legare, which mean 'away' and 'to send'. So a delegate is literally someone 'sent away' to act or speak for a group, which explains why it means a chosen representative.