Standard Lemma guide

selectively

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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CMU ARPABET: S AH0 L EH1 K T IH0 V L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

adv

Meaning 1

In a selective manner, only affecting or applying to some selected cases.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

adverb

Meaning 2

by selection; in a selective manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

we choose our students very selectively

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English selective Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English selectively From selective + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Catalan: selectivament — in a selective manner
Finnish: valikoivasti — in a selective manner
Galician: selectivamente — in a selective manner
Portuguese: seletivamente — in a selective manner
Slovak: selektívne — in a selective manner
Spanish: selectivamente — in a selective manner

Word forms

Inflections and variants

more selectively — comparative
most selectively — superlative

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: hepatoselectively, nonselectively, photoselectively, selectively mute, superselectively

Related: none provided

Semantic map

Other relationships

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

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Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

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Real reading context

Meaning relationships

Examples

Meaning relationships

selectively in complete knowledge articles