selector

S1E1L1E1C3T1O1R1
/sɪˈlɛktə(ɹ)/

noun

Someone or something which selects or chooses.

Similar
pickerchooserselector switch
CommonScrabble 10

Meanings

nounselector (plural selectors)

plural selectors

  1. Someone or something which selects or chooses.

    There is one selection for hot chocolate. All selectors are the push button type.

    1949, Billboard, volume 61, number 34, page 97
  2. ball gamesAn administrator responsible for selecting which players will play for a side.
  3. computingA matching expression in a stylesheet determining which elements in the markup are affected by a style.

    The ID selector targets just one element per page, making it much more specific than a class selector that might target many.

    2007, Craig Cook, David Schultz, Beginning HTML with CSS and XHTML, Apress, →ISBN, page 28
    1 more example

    The selector indicates the query expression to run over the DOM; the context indicates the portion of the DOM from which to run the query.

    2009, Dino Esposito, Microsoft ASP.NET and AJAX, Microsoft Press, →ISBN, page 140
  4. computingA pointer to a structure describing a segment of memory.

    You will only have to be concerned with DPMI, selectors, and such, if you use Borland C++ in DOS.

    1995, Lary L. Myers, Keith Weiskamp, Amazing 3-D games adventure set, page 235
    1 more example

    Phar Lap executables […] provide a protected-mode selector, 34h, that maps to the first megabyte of physical memory.

    1990, Byte, volume 15, numbers 11-13, page 256
  5. InternethistoricalA text string transmitted to a Gopher server, identifying the resource to be retrieved.

    Gopher selector strings are more liberal in makeup than URLs and may contain any characters other than a tab, return, or linefeed.

    1996, Kenneth H. Rosen, UNIX System V, Release 4: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, page 438
  6. entertainmentA disc jockey.

    That's my sector, homosexual dissector / Come again, rewind selector

    2009, “Medicine Ball”, in Relapse, performed by Eminem
    1 more example

    This sonic body has to decide which music track to play at any particular moment. But when the selector is alone in front of the crowd, how do they know which track to play next?

    2011, Julian Henriques, Sonic Bodies, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 125
  7. AustraliahistoricalA person who is entitled to choose a tract of Crown land to purchase.

    Each selector in turn chose the particular allotment he wanted for his client, and so on till this important work was over.

    1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 78

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna person who chooses or selects out

nouna switch that is used to select among alternatives

Similar
selector switch
Broader
switchelectric switchelectrical switch

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*s(w)é
  2. Latinsē-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*leǵ-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*léǵeti
  5. Proto-Italic*legō
  6. Latinlegō
  7. Latinsēlegō
  8. Latinsēlēctu
  9. Englishselect
  10. Englishselector

From select + -or.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 選擇器 /选择器
  • 選擇器 /选择器 (xuǎnzéqì)expression in stylesheet
Māori pūtīpako
  • pūtīpakotext string identifying a Gopher resource to be retrieved
Portuguese selecionador
  • selecionadorsomeone or something which selects or chooses

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with selector

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

selector. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selector

MLA

“selector.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selector. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “selector,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selector.

Source: selector on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.