A nominee is someone who has been officially selected or proposed for a position, award, or honor. When a movie receives five Oscar nominations, those five movies are the nominees for Best Picture. When a political party chooses its nominee for president, that person becomes the official candidate who will run in the election.

Think of it like raising your hand in class to suggest who should be class president: once the teacher writes that person's name on the board as an official candidate, they become a nominee.

Being a nominee doesn't guarantee winning. The Oscar nominees compete against each other, and only one wins the actual award. A presidential nominee must still win the general election to become president. But being chosen as a nominee is itself an achievement: it means you've already stood out enough that people thought you deserved consideration.

You'll often see the word in formal contexts: award nominees, nominees for important jobs, or candidates nominated for student council. The opposite of a nominee might be a winner (who was selected from among the nominees) or simply someone who wasn't nominated at all.