chosen
- 1Past participle of choose.
The committee has chosen a new chairperson for the year.
He had chosen the wrong path and lost an hour backtracking.
Note
The participle has been rebuilt once already. Old English said coren, the past participle of ċēosan, and Middle English remade it as chosen, from choose plus the participle ending -en. Today it follows have in perfect tenses (has chosen) and be in the passive (was chosen). The simple past is the shorter chose, and the two forms are not interchangeable.
- 2Picked or selected from a number of options for a particular use or purpose.
The chosen candidate received the most support from the hiring panel.
Each chosen sample was carefully labeled before testing began.
Similarselected, preferred, picked
Note
Once it moves in front of a noun, the participle turns into a description: the chosen candidate, a few chosen participants. That position is what separates it from the verb form, which follows has or was. As an adjective it can even take degrees, more chosen and most chosen, which the verb form never does.
- 3Selected for an office or position through the votes of others.
The chosen senator took office after a narrow win at the polls.
Each chosen delegate had earned a clear majority in their district.
Oppositedefeated
Less common meaning
- 4Past participle of chuse.
Note
An old spelling, not a different verb. Chuse is an obsolete way of writing choose, and its participle was spelled chosen all the same. A reader meeting chuse in older printing can treat this form exactly like the participle of modern choose, with the same auxiliaries and the same meanings. In new writing only choose is safe, and chuse will read as either an error or a deliberate period touch.
Showing meanings only.
chosen is a form of choose
choose, verb: To pick someone or something from two or more possibilities, including someone for an office or position. Full entry
- Spelling
- choose → chosen: irregular (no -ed)
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Origin
"Chosen" comes from Middle English "chosen," a re-analysed variant of "coren"/"icoren," from Old English "coren"/"ġecoren," the past participle of "ċēosan" ("to choose"). It is essentially "choose" plus the "-en" past participle ending.