Adjacent Words

Selective definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SELECT'IVE, a. Selecting; tending to select. [Unusual.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: tending to select; characterized by careful choice; "an exceptionally quick and selective reader"- John Mason Brown
2: characterized by very careful or fastidious selection; "the school was very selective in its admissions"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1625 1. of, relating to, or characterized by selection ; selecting or tending to select 2. highly specific in activity or effect <selective pesticides> <selective absorption> • selectively adverb • selectiveness noun • selectivity noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 using or characterized by selection. 2 able to select, esp. (of a radio receiver) able to respond to a chosen frequency without interference from others. Phrases and idioms: selective service US hist. service in the armed forces under conscription. Derivatives: selectively adv. selectiveness n. selectivity n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Selective Se*lect"ive, a. Selecting; tending to select. This selective providence of the Almighty. --Bp. Hall.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A selective process applies only to a few things or people. Selective breeding may result in a greyhound running faster and seeing better than a wolf. ADJ: ADJ n • selectively Within the project, trees are selectively cut on a 25-year rotation. ADV: usu ADV with v • selectivity The soldiers specialized in going out in small groups, to kill with a very high degree of selectivity. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp 2. When someone is selective, they choose things carefully, for example the things that they buy or do. Sales still happen, but buyers are more selective... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • selectively ...people on small incomes who wanted to shop selectively. ADV: ADV with v 3. If you say that someone has a selective memory, you disapprove of the fact that they remember certain facts about something and deliberately forget others, often because it is convenient for them to do so. We seem to have a selective memory for the best bits of the past... ADJ: usu ADJ n [disapproval] • selectively ...a tendency to selectively forget all the adverse effects of the drug. ADV: ADV with v

Moby Thesaurus

accurate, adoptive, appointive, appreciative, censorious, choicy, choosing, choosy, clannish, cliquish, conscientious, constituent, critical, delicate, demanding, differential, discerning, discriminate, discriminating, discriminative, discriminatory, distinctive, distinguishing, eclectic, elect, elective, electoral, ethnocentric, exact, exacting, exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, fastidious, fine, inadmissible, insular, meticulous, narrow, nice, parochial, particular, perfectionistic, picky, precise, precisianistic, preclusive, prescriptive, preventive, priggish, prohibitive, prudish, punctilious, puristic, puritanic, refined, restrictive, scrupulous, seclusive, segregative, select, selecting, sensitive, separative, snobbish, snobby, strict, subtle, tactful, xenophobic