Elective

How it is used

Mainly American English, in high schools and universities. Students take or choose an elective; schools offer electives. The opposite is a required course or core course. British schools usually talk about options or optional subjects.

Example sentences

1. Our school offers twelve electives, including robotics and creative writing.

2. I took photography as an elective in my last year of high school.

Common collocations

• take an elective
• offer electives
• elective course
• required course
• core course

Related terms

• curriculumThe whole set of subjects, content and skills that students are expected to learn at a school or level, including how the learning is organized and assessed.
• extracurricular activityAn activity organized by a school that takes place outside regular lessons, such as sports teams, clubs, music groups or volunteering.
• timetableA plan that shows which lessons happen at which times on each day of the week, for a class, a teacher or a whole school.
• syllabusA document that lists the topics, materials, assignments and assessment of one course, often with a week-by-week schedule.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• elective · Healthcare Management

More terms: Curriculum and Programs

• learning outcome
• textbook
• Bloom's taxonomy
• cross-curricular
• hidden curriculum