# selection
## English
### Etymology

From Latin sēlēctiō (“the act of choosing out, selection”), from sēlēctus, perfect passive participle of sēligō (“choose out, select”), from sē- (“apart”) + legō (“gather, select”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /səˈlɛkʃən/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

### Noun

selection (countable and uncountable, plural selections)
* The process or act of selecting.
    The large number of good candidates made selection difficult.
* Something selected.
    My final selection was a 1934 Chateau Lafite.
* A variety of items taken from a larger collection.
    I've brought a selection of fine cheeses to go with your wine.
* A musical piece.
    For my next selection, I'll play Happy Birthday in F-sharp minor.
* (databases) A set of data obtained from a database using a query.
* (linguistics) The ability of predicates to determine the semantic content of their arguments.
* (programming) A list of items on which user operations will take place.
* (algebra) A unary operation that denotes a subset of a relation.
* (historical) The free selection before survey of crown land in some Australian colonies under land legislation introduced in the 1860s.
** (Australia) A plot of land, or farm, thus selected.
** 1899, Steele Rudd, chapter 3, in On Our Selection, Sydney: Bulletin:Our selection adjoined a sheep-run on the Darling Downs, and boasted […] a forest of box-trees, a stock-yard, and six acres under barley[.]
* (biology) The stage of a genetic algorithm in which individual genomes are chosen from a population for later breeding.
* (biology) Ellipsis of natural selection.
** 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 109:Slow though the process of selection may be, if feeble man can do much by his powers of artificial selection, I can see no limit to the amount of change, to the beauty and infinite complexity of the coadaptations between all organic beings, one with another and with their physical conditions of life, which may be effected in the long course of time by nature’s power of selection.

#### Synonyms

* choice
* (something selected): option
* (musical piece): number, piece
* (variety from larger collection): subset

#### Derived terms

* adverse selection
* ambidirectional selection
* apostatic selection
* artificial selection
* asexual selection
* autoselection
* background selection
* balancing selection
* bioselection
* chemoselection
* clonal selection
* compatibility selection
* contraselection
* coselection
* cosmological natural selection
* counterselection
* c-selection
* deme selection
* demic selection
* deselection
* directional selection
* disruptive selection
* diversifying selection
* downselection
* eclection
* ecological selection
* enantioselection
* environmental selection
* eugenic selection
* fecundity selection
* forum selection agreement
* forum selection clause
* frequency-dependent selection
* gametic selection
* gene selection
* genetic selection
* genic selection
* group selection
* Helly's selection theorem
* hierarchical selection
* higher-level selection
* homoselection
* immunoselection
* individual selection
* inevitable selection
* interdeme selection
* interdemic selection
* intersexual selection
* interspecies selection
* intrademe selection
* intrademic selection
* intrasexual selection
* intraspecies selection
* kin selection
* K-selection
* lower-level selection
* misselection
* multilevel selection (MLS)
* multiselection
* natural selection
* natural selectional
* natural selectionary
* negative selection
* non-selection
* nonselection
* organismal selection
* organismic selection
* orthoselection
* overselection
* panselection
* panselectionism
* panselectionist
* photoselection
* positive selection
* postselection
* preselection
* purified selection
* purifying selection
* r/K selection theory
* regioselection
* reselection
* r-selection
* runaway selection
* selectional
* selectionary
* selection bias
* selection effect
* selectionism
* selectionist
* selection rule
* selection sort
* self-selection
* sexual selection
* simultaneous selection
* species selection
* s-selection
* stabilising selection, stabilizing selection
* strong selection
* subselection
* supernatural selection
* superselection
* supraorgamismal selection
* survival selection
* theory of natural selection
* underselection
* unit of selection
* unnatural selection
* unselection
* viability selection
* weak selection

#### Related terms

* elect
* election
* elective
* elite, élite
* elitism, élitism
* elitist, élitist
* panselective
* panselectivist
* select
* selectability
* selectable
* selectance
* selectee
* selective
* selectively
* selectiveness
* selectivity
* selectly
* selectman
* selectness
* selector

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Further reading

* “selection”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “selection”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* elections, selenotic, telesonic