The eyes themselves can become selective, ignoring part of what is there, and the brain sometimes insists on seeing things that don't exist at all.
Source: tatoeba (263373)
Selective
//səˈlɛktɪv//
Synonyms for "selective" (75 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (15)
Strong matches (23)
Related words (37)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Related terms
2 entriesderived
60 entriesShowing 16 of 60 words.
has context
2 entriesrelated to
9 entriessimilar
4 entriesTranslations
47 translations across 20 languages.
Ancient Greek
1 entries- ἐκλεκτικός adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Arabic
1 entries- اِنْتِقَائِيّ adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Bulgarian
3 entries- избирателен adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- придирчив adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
- селективен adj (of or relating to natural selection)
Catalan
2 entries- selectiu adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- selectiu adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Czech
1 entries- vybíravý adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Finnish
4 entries- selektiivinen adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- selektiivinen adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
- valikoiva adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- valikoiva adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
French
2 entries- sélectif adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- sélectif adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
German
4 entries- Selektions adj (of or relating to natural selection)
- ausgewählt adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- auswählend adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- gezielt adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Greek
1 entries- εκλεκτικός adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Italian
1 entries- selettivo adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- selektiv adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Norwegian Nynorsk
1 entries- selektiv adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Polish
3 entries- selektywny adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- wybiórczy adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- wybiórczy adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Portuguese
1 entries- seletivo adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Romanian
2 entries- de selecție adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- selectiv adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
Russian
4 entries- вы́борный adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- избира́тельный adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- перебо́рчивый adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
- разбо́рчивый adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Serbo-Croatian
2 entries- izbìrljiv adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
- probìrljiv adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Slovak
4 entries- prieberčivý adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
- selektívny adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- selekčný adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- vyberavý adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Spanish
2 entries- selectivo adj (of or pertaining to the process of selection)
- selectivo adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Turkish
1 entries- seçici adj (choosy, fussy or discriminating when selecting)
Sample sentences
15 total sentences available.
Natural selection has similarities to selective breeding, but it happens by itself and over a much longer period of time.
Source: tatoeba (3630700)
The way to protect yourself and your family from being adversely affected by television is to be more selective of the programmes you watch.
Source: tatoeba (3634123)
Our department has about one hundred postgraduate students, but entry is highly selective.
Source: tatoeba (3660634)
Showing 4 of 15 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.