Select

How to spell select

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce select

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does select mean?

1. verbTo carefully choose one or more things from a larger group.
2. adjectiveCarefully chosen as being among the best, or limited to a privileged few.

Select in a sentence

• verb

  Please select the file you wish to upload.

• adjective

  Only a select group of investors received the early offer.

• verb

  The committee will select three candidates for interview.

• adjective

  The restaurant serves a select range of regional wines.

Where does select come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Select comes from the Latin verb seligere, meaning 'to choose out' or 'to pick apart', formed from the prefix se-, meaning 'apart' or 'aside', and legere, meaning 'to gather, pick or choose'. The past participle of seligere was selectus, literally 'chosen out', and it was this form that English adopted in the sixteenth century, first as an adjective for things picked out as the best. The root legere is remarkably productive: it also gives us 'collect' (gather together), 'elect' (choose out by voting) and even 'lecture' (originally a reading, a gathering of words). The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the single c sounded as a k and the t firmly pronounced, so the chief thing to remember is the single l and single c rather than any doubling.

How the word is built

• se- (apart)
• lect (from Latin legere: to choose, gather)