Dictionary
se•lec•tion
Pronunciation: (si-lek'shun), [key]—
n.
1. an act or instance of selecting or the state of being selected; choice.
2. a thing or a number of things selected.
3. 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.
4. Biol.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. Cf.
natural selection, sexual selection, kin selection, artificial selection.
5. Ling.
a. 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.
b. 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.Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
