# choose
## English
### Alternative forms

* chuse (obsolete)

### Etymology 1

From Middle English cheosen, chesen, from Old English ċēosan (“to choose, seek out, select, elect, decide, test, accept, settle for, approve”), from Proto-West Germanic *keusan, from Proto-Germanic *keusaną (“to taste, choose”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwseti, from *ǵews- (“to taste, try”).
Cognate with Scots chuise, cheese (“to choose”), North Frisian kese (“to choose”), Saterland Frisian kjoze (“to choose”), West Frisian kieze (“to choose”), Dutch kiezen (“to choose”), French choisir (“to choose”), Low German kesen (“to choose”), German Low German kiesen (“to pick, select”), archaic and partially obsolete German kiesen (“to choose”), Danish kyse (“to frighten (via ‘to charm, allure’ and ‘to enchant’)”), Norwegian kjose (“to choose”), Swedish tjusa (“to charm, allure, enchant”), Icelandic kjósa (“to choose, vote, elect”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (kiusan, “to test”), Latin gustō (“I taste, sample”), Ancient Greek γεύω (geúō, “to feed”), Sanskrit जोषति (jóṣati, “to like, enjoy”), Russian кушать (kúšatʹ, “to have a meal, to eat”).

#### Pronunciation

* enPR: cho͞oz, IPA: /t͡ʃuːz/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Homophone: chews
* Rhymes: -uːz

#### Verb

choose (third-person singular simple present chooses, present participle choosing, simple past chose or (nonstandard) choosed, past participle chosen or (nonstandard) choosed or (now colloquial) chose)
* To pick; to make the choice of; to select.
    I chose a nice ripe apple from the fruit bowl.
** 1739, [David Hume], “Of the Influencing Motives of the Will”, in A Treatise of Human Nature: […], book II (Of the Passions), London: […] John Noon, […], →OCLC, part III (Of the Will and Direct Passions), page 249:Secondly, VVhen in exerting any paſſion in action, vve chuſe means inſufficient for the deſign'd end, and deceive ourſelves in our judgment of cauſes and effects.
** 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
* To elect.
    He was chosen as president in 1990.
* To decide to act in a certain way.
    I chose to walk to work today.
* To prefer; to wish; to desire.
** 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC:The landlady now returned to know if we did not choose a more genteel apartment.
** 2016, Justin Deschamps, (Please provide the book title or journal name):Choose truth, and find beauty. Choose love, and embrace change.

##### Usage notes

* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

##### Conjugation

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete. $^1$ Nonstandard. $^2$ Colloquial.

##### Derived terms

* choosability
* choosable
* chooseable
* choose one's battles
* choose one's fighter
* choose out
* chooser
* choose sides
* choose the wrong horse
* choose up
* choose violence
* choose your own adventure
* choose-your-own-adventure
* choosingly
* cut and choose
* divide and choose
* forechoose
* I choose violence
* mischoose
* nothing to choose between
* pick and choose
* prechoose
* rechoose
* right to choose
* unchoose

##### Related terms

* choice
* choosy
* chosen

##### Translations

Acehnese: piléh
Afrikaans: kies (af)
Aklanon: pili'
Albanian: zgjedh (sq)
Arabic: اِخْتَارَ (iḵtāra)
Egyptian Arabic: اختار (iḵtār)
Armenian: ընտրել (hy) (əntrel)
Assamese: বাছা (basa) বাছনি (basoni), নিৰ্বাচন কৰা (nirrason kora)
Asturian: escoyer, elixir
Azerbaijani: seçmək (az)
Bashkir: һайлау (haylaw)/һайҙау (hayźaw)
Basque: aukeratu
Belarusian: выбіра́ць impf (vybirácʹ), вы́браць pf (výbracʹ)
Bengali: নির্বাচন করা (nirbacon kora)
Bulgarian: подби́рам (bg) impf (podbíram)
Burmese: ရွေး (my) (rwe:)
Catalan: triar (ca), escollir (ca), elegir (ca)
Cebuano: pili
Chechen: харжа (xarža)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 揀 / 拣 (gaan$^2$), 選擇 / 选择 (syun$^2$ zaak$^6$)
Mandarin: 選擇 / 选择 (zh) (xuǎnzé), 挑選 / 挑选 (zh) (tiāoxuǎn)
Czech: volit (cs) impf, zvolit (cs) pf, vybírat (cs) impf, vybrat (cs) pf
Danish: vælge (da), udvælge, foretrække
Dutch: kiezen (nl), uitkiezen (nl)
Egyptian: (stp)
Esperanto: elekti
Estonian: valima
Even: хинма- (hinma-)
Evenki: синма- (sinma-)
Extremaduran: escohel
Finnish: valita (fi)
French: choisir (fr)
Friulian: sielzi, cerni
Galician: escoller (gl), elixir (gl)
Georgian: ამორჩევა (amorčeva)
German: wählen (de), auswählen (de)
Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (waljan)
Greek: διαλέγω (el) (dialégo), επιλέγω (el) (epilégo)
Ancient: αἱρέομαι (hairéomai), ἐκλέγω (eklégō)
Haitian Creole: chwazi
Hebrew: בחר (he) (bakhár)
Higaonon: pili
Hindi: चुनना (hi) (cunnā)
Hungarian: kiválaszt (hu)
Icelandic: velja (is)
Ido: selektar (io)
Ilocano: pili
Indonesian: memilih (id), pilih (id)
Ingrian: valita
Ingush: хержа (xerža)
Irish: roghnaigh, togh
Old Irish: do·goa
Italian: scegliere (it), selezionare (it)
Japanese: 選ぶ (ja) (えらぶ, erabu)
Javanese: milih (jv)
Kazakh: таңдау (tañdau)
Khmer: រើស (km) (rəəh), ជ្រើស (km) (crəəh)
Korean: 고르다 (ko) (goreuda)
Kyrgyz: тандоо (ky) (tandoo)
Lao: ເລືອກ (lư̄ak)
Latin: legō (la), dēligō, ēligō, creō (la), optō, dēsūmō
Latvian: atlasīt
Lingala: pono, kopono, kopono
Lithuanian: pasirinkti
Lombard: scernì (lmo)
Macedonian: и́збира impf (ízbira)
Malay: pilih (ms)
Maltese: għażel
Mansaka: palli
Maori: whiri, kōwhiri
Maranao: piliq
Marathi: निवडणे (mr) (nivaḍṇe)
Middle English: chesen
Mongolian: сонгох (mn) (songox)
Nahuatl: pehpena
Nepali: छान्नु (chānnu)
Ngazidja Comorian: utsungua
Norman: chouaîsi
Northern Thai: ᩃᩮᩬᩥᨠ
Norwegian:
Bokmål: velge (no)
Occitan: triar (oc), causir (oc)
Old English: ċēosan
Old Javanese: pilih
Old Saxon: kiosan
Persian: گزیدن (fa) (gazidan)
Polish: wybierać (pl) impf, wybrać (pl) pf
Portuguese: escolher (pt)
Quechua: akllay, akray
Romanian: alege (ro)
Romansch: tscherner, tscharner, tschearner
Russian: выбира́ть (ru) impf (vybirátʹ), вы́брать (ru) pf (výbratʹ)
Sanskrit: वृणोति (sa) (vṛṇoti)
Scottish Gaelic: tagh
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: изабрати, одабрати
Roman: izabrati (sh), odabrati (sh)
Shan: လိူၵ်ႈ (shn) (lōek)
Sinhalese: තෝරා ගන්නවා (tōrā gannawā)
Slovak: vyberať impf, vybrať pf
Slovene: izbrati (sl)
Spanish: escoger (es), elegir (es), escogitar (Latin America)
Swahili: kuchagua
Swedish: välja (sv)
Tagalog: pili (tl)
Tai Dam: ꪹꪩꪀ
Tajik: газидан (tg) (gazidan)
Tatar: сайларга (saylarga)
Tausug: pii
Tetum: hili
Thai: เลือก (th) (lʉ̂ʉak), คัดเลือก (th) (kát lêuak), คัด (th) (kát), เฟ้น (th) (fén)
Turkish: seçmek (tr)
Turkmen: seçmek, saýlamak
Ukrainian: вибира́ти impf (vybyráty), ви́брати pf (výbraty)
Urdu: چننا (cunnā)
Uzbek: tanlamoq (uz)
Venetan: ẑernir (vec), sièlder, sèlier, sèłier, sernìr, sèrner, sèrnar
Vietnamese: chọn (vi), lựa chọn (vi), kén chọn (vi)
Walloon: tchoezi (wa)
Welsh: dewis (cy)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: pili' :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Conjunction

choose
* (mathematics) The binomial coefficient of the previous and following number.
    The number of distinct subsets of size k from a set of size n is ${\tbinom {n}{k}}$ or "n choose k".

##### See also

* Binomial coefficient on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Etymology 2

From Middle English chose, chos, chooce, a Northern dialectal form of Middle English chois (“choice”). Cognate with Scots chose, choose, chuse (“choosing, choice, selection”). Doublet of choice, which see for more.

#### Noun

choose (plural chooses)
* (obsolete, Northern England, Scotland) The act of choosing; selection.
* (obsolete, Northern England, Scotland) The power, right, or privilege of choosing; election.

### References

* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “choose”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “choose”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Choose”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Cohoes, cohoes, ooches