selection
Pluralselections
- 1A group of different things picked from a larger set.
Like a sample box with a few of each candy inside.
The store offers a wide selection of cheeses.
She brought a selection of snacks for the long trip.
UsageSay a selection of + things: a wide selection of snacks.
Similarrange, assortment, variety, array, collection
- 2The act of choosing something or someone from a group.
Like picking the ripest fruit from a basket.
The team's selection of a new captain took several days.
The selection of a new team captain took the coaches a whole week.
UsageSay the selection of a captain, and her selection for the team.
Similarchoice, choosing, picking, nomination
Oppositerejection
- 3Someone or something that has been chosen, such as a piece of music picked to be played.
Like the one toy you choose to keep from a big box.
This song was my selection for the party playlist.
The chef's selection arrived on a large white plate.
UsageOften selections from a show or book: songs or parts picked from it.
- 4Short for natural selection. It is the way nature keeps the traits that help living things survive and have young.
Selection slowly made the fastest rabbits more common in the field.
Over time, selection favored birds with thicker, stronger beaks.
Note
Less common meanings
- 5A group of items a user has marked so the computer can act on them.
Like highlighting words with a marker before you do something to them.
Delete your selection by clicking the trash icon.
Drag the mouse across the screen to make a selection of files.
UsageYou make or clear a selection, for example your current selection.
Note
- 6In databases, picking out the records that match a search, or the records you get back.
- 7In a genetic algorithm, the step that picks options to combine into new ones, usually favoring the stronger ones.
- 8The way a word such as a verb limits what the words used with it can mean.
- 9In colonial Australia, choosing and buying public land to farm before the government had measured it.
- 10A farm or piece of land claimed under the old Australian land laws of the 1860s.
Practice
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Origin
A learned borrowing from Latin sēlēctiō, meaning 'the act of choosing out.' It comes from sēligō, 'to choose out,' made from sē- ('apart') and legō ('gather, select').
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Selection is a learned borrowing from Latin sēlēctiō. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin sēlēctiō means the act of choosing out. en.wiktionary.org
- Sēlēctiō derives from sēligō, meaning to choose out. en.wiktionary.org
- Sēligō combines sē-, meaning apart, and legō, meaning gather or select. en.wiktionary.org