selection
Americannoun
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selections
plural
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an act or instance of selecting or the state of being selected; choice.
- Antonyms:
- rejection
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a thing or a number of things selected.
- Synonyms:
- pick, gathering, collection
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an aggregate of things displayed for choice, purchase, use, etc.; a group from which a choice may be made.
The store had a wide selection of bracelets.
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Biology. any natural or artificial process that results in differential reproduction among the members of a population so that the inheritable traits of only certain individuals are passed on, or are passed on in greater proportion, to succeeding generations.
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Linguistics.
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the choice of one form instead of another in a position where either can occur, as of ask instead of tell or with in the phrase ask me.
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the choice of one semantic or syntactic class of words in a construction, to the exclusion of others that do not occur there, as the choice of an animate object for the verb surprise.
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noun
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the act or an instance of selecting or the state of being selected
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a thing or number of things that have been selected
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a range from which something may be selected
this shop has a good selection of clothes
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biology the natural or artificial process by which certain organisms or characters are reproduced and perpetuated in the species in preference to others See also natural selection
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a contestant in a race chosen as likely to win or come second or third
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the act of free-selecting
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a tract of land acquired by free-selection
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of selection
First recorded in 1640–50; from Latin sēlēctiōn-, stem of sēlēctiō; equivalent to select + -ion
Explanation
Selection is all about choosing. Think about a salad bar: you can make a selection from among several choices, with croutons always being a popular selection. Inside selection is the word select, "to choose." Selection means the act of choosing, the thing chosen, or the offerings to be chosen from among. Selection can also mean a passage excerpted (or selected) from a longer text. Church services often involve reading a day's selection from the Bible.
Vocabulary lists containing selection
PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade7)
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Word Generation Science - Life Science
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Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 81-90
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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:
The proceedings will open with jury selection, which is expected to take a week.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
The findings show that the crucial selection does not necessarily happen when the electron first moves.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
Min said he ultimately was disappointed at Cal State Long Beach’s selection of food trucks, as a student who prioritizes cutting his cost of living.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
The shop also stocks a selection of shoes and football boots at a reduced price.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
As the tycoon outfitted his country estate, he demanded that every touch be just so, down to the selection of the family dog.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
In the meantime, remaining markets offer patchy selections of fruits and vegetables.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
You might expect all our selections to be victories, but this draw is right up there among England's finest away performances.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
It’s already reflected in stock prices, and investors gain no advantage when basing their stock selections on it.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 4, 2026
For questions where respondents could make multiple selections, “no” answers are the share that didn’t select that option excluding those that didn’t answer the question at all or responded that they “did not know.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Burnham knew exactly whom he wanted to hire but was less aware of how incendiary his selections would prove.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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.
