selective

  • 1selective — UK US /sɪˈlektɪv/ adjective ► intentionally choosing certain things or people, and not others: be selective about sth »We need to be more selective about the people we hire. be selective in sth/doing sth »Banks have become more selective in… …

    Financial and business terms

  • 2Selective — Se*lect ive, a. Selecting; tending to select. [1913 Webster] This selective providence of the Almighty. Bp. Hall. [1913 Webster] …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 3selective — (adj.) 1620s; see SELECT (Cf. select) + IVE (Cf. ive). Related: Selectively; selectiveness. Selective service is from 1917, American English …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4selective — index adoptive, discretionary, discriminating (distinguishing), discriminating (judicious), disjunctive (alternative …

    Law dictionary

  • 5selective — [adj] discriminating careful, choicy, choosy, discerning, discriminatory, eclectic, fussy, judicious, particular, persnickety*, picky, scrupulous, select; concepts 404,542 Ant. open, uncaring, undiscriminating, unselective …

    New thesaurus

  • 6selective — ► ADJECTIVE 1) relating to or involving selection. 2) tending to choose carefully. 3) (of a process or agent) affecting some things and not others. DERIVATIVES selectively adverb selectiveness noun selectivity noun …

    English terms dictionary

  • 7selective — [sə lek′tiv] adj. 1. of or characterized by selection 2. a) having the power of selecting; tending to select b) tending to select carefully; fastidious; discriminating 3. Radio excluding oscillations on all frequencies except the one desired… …

    English World dictionary

  • 8selective — [[t]sɪle̱ktɪv[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED: ADJ n 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. ...selective education. Derived words: selectively ADV… …

    English dictionary

  • 9selective — adj. VERBS ▪ be ADVERB ▪ extremely, fairly, very, etc. ▪ highly ▪ increasi …

    Collocations dictionary

  • 10selective — se|lec|tive [sıˈlektıv] adj 1.) careful about what you choose to do, buy, allow etc selective about/in ▪ We re very selective about what we let the children watch. ▪ selective schools (=that choose which students to accept) ▪ He has a very… …

    Dictionary of contemporary English