# selection

Pronunciation: say "suh-LEK-shuhn" /səˈlɛkʃən/

## Noun

1. A range of varied items taken from a larger group or collection.
   - Simple: A group of different things picked from a larger set.
   - _The gallery displayed a selection of paintings from the 1920s._
   - _Our menu features a fine selection of local wines._
2. The process or act of choosing something or someone from a number of options.
   - Simple: The act of choosing something or someone from a group.
   - _The selection of jurors began early in the morning._
   - _Her selection for the lead role surprised everyone on the committee._
3. A person or thing chosen from among others, such as a piece of music or a passage of writing picked to be performed or read.
   - Simple: Someone or something that has been chosen, such as a piece of music picked to be played.
   - _The wine was an excellent selection for the dinner._
   - _The pianist's final selection was a short piece by Chopin._
4. Ellipsis of natural selection. — Ellipsis of natural selection.
   - Simple: Short for natural selection. It is the way nature keeps the traits that help living things survive and have young.
   - _Selection has shaped the camouflage patterns of these moths._
   - _Biologists study how selection drives gradual change within a species._
5. A set of items a user has marked so that operations can be performed on them.
   - Simple: A group of items a user has marked so the computer can act on them.
   - _Copy the current selection and paste it into the new document._
   - _The toolbar buttons apply only to your active selection._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In databases, the operation of picking out the rows or records that meet a given condition, or the set of records it returns.
- (noun) A stage in a genetic algorithm that chooses genomes from a population for later breeding, favoring those with greater fitness.
- (noun) In linguistics, the way a predicate restricts the meaning of the arguments it can take.
- (noun) The choosing and buying of unsurveyed crown land by settlers in certain Australian colonies, allowed under land laws introduced in the 1860s.
- (noun) A plot of land or farm taken up under the free-selection land laws of 1860s Australia.

## Origin

English took it as a learned borrowing of Latin sēlēctiō ('the act of choosing out, selection'). That noun was built on the verb sēligō ('choose out, select'), itself made of sē- ('apart') and legō ('gather, select'). In English terms it amounts to select + -ion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/selection (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).