choice

plural choices · alternative obsolete choise · alternative obsolete choyse

1. countableuncountableAn option; a decision; an opportunity to choose or select something.

   Do I have a choice of what color to paint it?

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   Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that “nudges” our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.

   2012 January 28, Steven Sloman, “The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 08 Jan 2012, page 74

   Synonyms: conclusion, opinion, verdict, call, award, censure, opinion, conclusion

2. uncountableThe power to choose.

   She didn't leave us much choice.

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   For he is also the political leader of the nation, or has it in his choice to be.

   1907, Woodrow Wilson, Constitutional Government in the United States, page 68

3. countableuncountableOne selection or preference; that which is chosen or decided; the outcome of a decision.

   The ice cream sundae is a popular choice for dessert.

   Synonyms: option, possibility, option, alternative, possibility, contingency

4. countableuncountableAnything that can be chosen.

   You have three choices: vanilla, strawberry or chocolate.

   Synonyms: assortment, range, selection

5. countableuncountableusuallyThe best or most preferable part.

   The flower and choice / Of many provinces from bound to bound.

   1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 3

   Synonyms: the cream

6. countableobsoleteuncountableCare and judgement in selecting; discrimination, selectiveness.

   I imagine they [the apothegms of Caesar] were collected with judgment and choice.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC

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   We see children perpetually running from place to place to hunt out something new; they catch with great eagerness, and with very little choice, at whatever comes before them; their attention is engaged by every thing, because every thing has, in that stage of life, the charm of novelty to recommend it.

   1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Part I, Section I, p. 1

7. countableobsoleteuncountableA sufficient number to choose among.

   And, which is more, she is not so divine, / So full replete with choice of all delights

   c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act 5, scene 5, lines 17–18

   Synonyms: abundance, profusion, abundance, cornucopia, gold mine, horn of Amalthea, horn of plenty, plethora

8. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountablemathematicsEllipsis of axiom of choice.

   5. ZF* is the theory obtained from the aforementioned axiomatics (without choice) by adding the Axiom of Inaccessible Cardinals to be explained in the next secion; similarly, we get ZFC*.

   2016 July 15, Decio Krause, Jonas R.B. Arenhart, The Logical Foundations of Scientific Theories: Languages, Structures, and Models (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics), Routledge, →ISBN, page 51

comparative choicer · comparative more choice · superlative choicest · superlative most choice · alternative obsolete choise · alternative obsolete choyse

1. Especially good or preferred.

   It's a choice location, but you will pay more to live there.

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   This it is, that for ever keeps God’s true princes of the Empire from the world’s hustings; and leaves the highest honors that this air can give, to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 33, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 162

   Synonyms: prime, prize, quality, select, choicy

2. obsoleteCareful in choosing; discriminating.

   Choice word, and measured phrase; above the reach / Of ordinary men; a stately speech;

   1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

   3 more examples

   that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding.

   1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

   Thus musing, he ate nothing; the Queen, believing that it was in consequence of his having been unkindly received, loaded him with caresses; she herself handed him some exquisite fruits, of which she was very choice.

   1856, J. R. Planché (tr.), Fairy Tales by the Countess d'Aulnoy, The Princess Carpillon

   One day the cabin steward made me a present of some molasses, which I was so choice of that I kept it hid away in a tin can in the farthest corner of my bunk.

   1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

alternative obsolete choise · alternative obsolete choyse

1. New ZealandslangCool; excellent.

   "I'm going to the movies." —"Choice!"

1. A surname.

plural CHOICEs

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense

   This provision permits employees enrolled in a CHOICE arrangement to use a salary reduction to pay for health plan premiums purchased through an Exchange.

   2025 May 29, “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill”, in United States House Committee on Ways & Means, page 19