Candidate

A candidate, or "nominee", is a person (or a thing) which is being considered for something. For a person, it might be an award or honor or membership of a group. An election, for example, often chooses one or a few, among two or more candidates. The word comes from a Latin word for white, because men who wanted to be chosen would wear white so everyone would notice them. 
The word is also used in problem-solving. In chess, a distinction is made between legal moves and candidate moves. The candidate moves are those selected for a more detailed examination.