choice
Americannoun
-
choices
plural
-
an act or instance of choosing; selection.
Her choice of a computer was made after months of research. His parents were not happy with his choice of friends.
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the right, power, or opportunity to choose; option.
The child had no choice about going to school.
-
the person or thing chosen or eligible to be chosen.
This book is my choice.
He is one of many choices for the award.
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an alternative.
There is another choice.
-
an abundance or variety from which to choose.
a wide choice of candidates.
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something that is preferred or preferable to others; the best part of something.
Mare's Nest is the choice in the sixth race.
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a carefully selected supply.
This restaurant has a fine choice of wines.
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a choice grade of beef.
adjective
idioms
noun
-
the act or an instance of choosing or selecting
-
the opportunity or power of choosing
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a person or thing chosen or that may be chosen
he was a possible choice
-
an alternative action or possibility
what choice did I have?
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a supply from which to select
a poor choice of shoes
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preferred; favourite
adjective
-
of superior quality; excellent
choice wine
-
carefully chosen, appropriate
a few choice words will do the trick
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vulgar or rude
choice language
Usage
What is a basic definition of choice? A choice is an act of choosing something from multiple options or is one of the options you can choose from. Choice also describes something as being carefully selected. Choice has several other senses as a noun and an adjective. When a person makes a choice, they consider different options and select one of them. For example, you might look at different colors of paint for your bedroom and decide that you want red paint. Your choice of paint was red. When making a choice, the options can be physical things, like food to eat, or nonphysical things, like which direction to drive or what to name a baby. Choice comes from the verb choose, which means to select something from different options.
- Real-life examples: Life is full of choices, ranging from what to eat for breakfast to what kind of job you want to have. Sadly, many people regret the choices they have made in life. We often face really tough choices where we don’t want to pick any of the options available.
- Used in a sentence: She was really happy with her choice of becoming a Hollywood actress.
- Used in a sentence: I’m pretty sure going into the woods at night was the wrong choice.
- Used in a sentence: We narrowed down the menu to a few choice dishes.
Synonym Usage
Choice, alternative, option, preference all suggest the power of choosing between things. Choice implies the opportunity to choose: a choice of evils. Alternative suggests that one has a choice between only two possibilities. It is often used with a negative to mean that there is no second possibility: to have no alternative. Option emphasizes free right or privilege of choosing: to exercise one's option. Preference applies to a choice based on liking or partiality: to state a preference. See fine 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of choice
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English chois, from Old French, derived from choisir “to perceive, choose,” from Germanic; see choose
Explanation
When you come to a fork in the road, you have to make a choice. If you can't decide, maybe you should flip a coin. If you have to choose between two schools, the one you end up going to is your choice. If there's only one option, we say we "have no choice," while "the choice is yours" means it's up to you. Choice can also be an adjective for something of high quality, something worth choosing. The choice apples had all been picked by the time you arrived, so you had to settle for the bruised ones.
Vocabulary lists containing choice
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Thumbs Up: Synonyms for "Good"
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Common Core Grades 9–10, List 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"If you offered most entrepreneurs a choice between a grant, with significant paperwork, milestone payments and continuous scrutiny, or a paying customer, I suspect they would always choose the customer," he says.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Intentionally or not, then, John’s ultimate choice to let Noah live and keep Kerry’s culpability in Hal’s death a secret is a demonstration of empathy’s bravery.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
With their customers slipping financially, luxury brands face a choice to make their goods more affordable or to hold the line on prices and let their businesses shrink.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
“Why would I be ashamed of that?” he asked, adding that he doesn’t look down on immigrants who are now making the same choice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Once again, he’s designed it so that I don’t have a choice.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Voter turnout and last-minute choices are expected to be key.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
Rosie does not blame the gentle parenting philosophy itself but instead says the overall amount of parenting advice online was "overwhelming" and "made mundane parenting choices feel like the absolute end of the world."
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Visual choices matter, and this is a venture with high stakes.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
On the rare occasions when Erskine could find McCarthy, he pressed the author to rethink his arcane vocabulary choices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
He draws a picture, and I try to do what Brie suggested—asking him about his color choices and what he’s making instead of giving him compliments.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
She had even choicer words for her ex-boyfriend Walter Hopps, describing his “Clark Kent glasses that chopped his face into rectangular squares and made him seem as square and cool as celery.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2021
And so the weak part of the post-spinoff trio will clearly be eBay itself, the lean marketplace rump that will be left once the choicer meat is sliced away.
From Time ● Feb. 4, 2015
It's amazing that such fragile items survive - amazing the prices the choicer items can now attract.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2014
Cady Huffman, who won a Tony as the lusciously dim Ulla in “The Producers,” portrays various older women Evangeline encounters and is given some of the evening’s choicer material.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2012
But the other is undoubtedly the choicer word, and perhaps it may improve into dexterity, when thou art grown a little wiser.
From The Pictures; The Betrothing Novels by Connop Thirlwall
When Apple bought processors from suppliers like Intel or Samsung, it could pick the choicest chips they made.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Hard as it is to conceive of now, one family, the Rindges, once owned about 25 miles of the choicest coastal property in Southern California: Malibu.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
“Her Story,” a reflection on women’s rights, quotes some of the choicest insults that were spat at suffragists a century ago, as if to ask whether they sound familiar today.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2023
They’re known around the world for going after the choicest cuts from their prey.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 11, 2023
Poirot sat down and soon found himself in the favoured position of the table which was served first and with the choicest morsels.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
