SELECTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does selection mean? 

• SELECTION (noun)
  The noun SELECTION has 5 senses:

1. the act of choosing or selecting

2. an assortment of things from which a choice can be made

3. the person or thing chosen or selected

4. a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment

5. a passage selected from a larger work

  Familiarity information: SELECTION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SELECTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of choosing or selecting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

choice; option; pick; selection

Context example:

you can take your pick

Hypernyms ("selection" is a kind of...):

action (something done (usually as opposed to something said))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "selection"):

casting (the choice of actors to play particular roles in a play or movie)

coloration; colouration (choice and use of colors (as by an artist))

sampling ((statistics) the selection of a suitable sample for study)

conclusion; decision; determination (the act of making up your mind about something)

volition; willing (the act of making a choice)

election (the act of selecting someone or something; the exercise of deliberate choice)

ballot; balloting; vote; voting (a choice that is made by counting the number of people in favor of each alternative)

Derivation:

select (pick out, select, or choose from a number of alternatives)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An assortment of things from which a choice can be made

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the store carried a large selection of shoes

Hypernyms ("selection" is a kind of...):

assortment; miscellanea; miscellany; mixed bag; mixture; motley; potpourri; salmagundi; smorgasbord; variety (a collection containing a variety of sorts of things)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The person or thing chosen or selected

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

choice; pick; selection

Context example:

he was my pick for mayor

Hypernyms ("selection" is a kind of...):

deciding; decision making (the cognitive process of reaching a decision)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "selection"):

pleasure (a formal expression)

favorite; favourite (something regarded with special favor or liking)

way (doing as one pleases or chooses)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

natural selection; selection; survival; survival of the fittest

Hypernyms ("selection" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Sense 5

Meaning:

A passage selected from a larger work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

excerpt; excerption; extract; selection

Context example:

he presented excerpts from William James' philosophical writings

Hypernyms ("selection" is a kind of...):

passage (a section of text; particularly a section of medium length)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "selection"):

chrestomathy (a selection of passages from different authors that is compiled as an aid in learning a language)

analecta; analects (a collection of excerpts from a literary work)

clipping; cutting; newspaper clipping; press clipping; press cutting (an excerpt cut from a newspaper or magazine)

cut; track (a distinct selection of music from a recording or a compact disc)

citation; quotation; quote (a passage or expression that is quoted or cited)

Instance hyponyms:

Haftarah; Haftorah; Haphtarah; Haphtorah (a short selection from the Prophets read on every Sabbath in a Jewish synagogue following a reading from the Torah)

 Context examples 

A selection of time intervals for frames based on special physiologic criteria.

(Frame Gate, NCI Thesaurus)

Also, treat yourself to several new items for your wardrobe because with Venus in Pisces, your selections will surely win you compliments.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It does not proliferate and differentiate in response to antigen, but instead responds to antigen by negative selection resulting in subsequent immune system tolerance to that antigen.

(Immature B-Lymphocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

Pray give me the results of your newspaper selections.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When the researchers analysed the tumours, they found no evidence of either positive or negative selection.

(The curious tale of the cancer ‘parasite’ that sailed the seas, University of Cambridge)

Professor Dale said the genetic modification process had resulted in the identification and selection of banana genes that could be used to enhance pro-vitamin A in banana fruit.

(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

CD34 selection is a process where the protein is identified as the tissue is run through a machine and the positive cells are selected out from the non-CD34+ cells.

(CD34 Selection, NCI Thesaurus)

CD3 also mediates TCR signal transduction during the developmental transition through positive selection of immature thymocytes to mature CD4+ or CD8+ T cells.

(CD3 Complex, NCI Thesaurus)

The splicing factor U2AF 35-kD subunit, which mediates protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions required for 3-prime splice site selection, also contains this domain.

(C3H1 Zinc Finger, NCI Thesaurus)

In mammalian bone marrow, B-Cell Development consists of progressive differentiation from CD34+ progenitor cells to plasma and memory B cells by positive/negative selection in response to local signals, including antigens and cytokines.

(B-Cell Differentiation, NCI Thesaurus)