Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
exit poll

exit poll

38 3.6
A survey of people leaving a polling station asking how they voted
  • noun
  • /ˈɛksɪt poʊl/
  • Literature
translation icon : sondeo a pie de urna
  • The exit poll survey reinforces this as respondents saw voting as an expression of "freedom and democracy."
  • exit poll results
  • conduct exit polls
  • national exit poll

Now are we to believe the exit polls?

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • In the latest exit poll, Vice President Lewis has 51 percent of the vote.

    Head of State (2003)

  • The facts are that exit polls showed that 75% of Americans support tax increases on the wealthy.

    Blog text (10)

  • I bet the exit polls already have us by 10 points.

    Black Sheep (1996)

  • The exit polls are very close.

    Man of the Year (2006)

  • But we cannot know this if the claims are based on exit polls.

    Blog text (16)

  • Now I want you to think about these exit polls and the people who were responding yesterday.

  • Most of this comes from exit polling, where pollsters go and poll people as they're leaving the voting booth.

  • Exit polls and post-election surveys show that partisan preferences are closely linked to religious affiliation.

    Academic text (2002)

  • According to the latest exit poll, a majority of voters favored the new candidate.

  • The exit polls indicated that turnout was higher than expected in urban areas.

Synonyms

opinion poll
vsexit poll
43 2.5

A survey that asks a group of people what they think about a topic

asks people as they finish voting to estimate likely election results
straw poll
vsexit poll
18 4.4

A quick not official vote that shows what people think

runs an organized survey of actual voters after voting to predict results
public opinion poll
vsexit poll
17 3.1

A survey that asks a group of people who represent the public about their views on an issue

samples people leaving polling places immediately to predict election outcome
straw vote
vsexit poll
1 5.5

A quick unofficial vote to see if people support an idea

has identical meaning but uses different informal wording

Surface Forms

exit poll singular
exit polls plural

Morphology

exit + poll

The meaning 'a survey of voters taken as they leave polling stations' is directly derivable from combining 'exit' (departure) with 'poll' (survey): it denotes a survey conducted at exits. This is a straightforward, compositional phrase found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Exit poll comes from the simple image of someone asking people a quick question as they leave the voting place, with exit meaning leaving and poll meaning the vote. By asking people as they leave, reporters can quickly 'predict the result' of an election.