choose

• chuse (obsolete)

From Middle English chosen, chesen, from Old English ċēosan (“to choose, seek out, select, elect, decide, test, accept, settle for, approve”), from Proto-Germanic *keusaną (“to taste, choose”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwseti, from *ǵews- (“to taste, try”). Cognate with Scots chose, chese (“to choose”), French choisir (“to choose”), North Frisian kese (“to choose”), West Frisian kieze (“to choose”), Dutch kiezen (“to choose”), Low German kesen (“to choose”), archaic and partially obsolete German kiesen (“to choose”), Danish kyse (“to frighten (via "to charm, allure" and "to enchant")”), Norwegian kjose (“to choose”), Swedish tjusa (“to charm, allure, enchant”), Icelandic kjósa (“to choose, vote, elect”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (kiusan, “to test”), Latin gustō (“I taste, sample”), Ancient Greek γεύω (geúō, “to feed”), Sanskrit जोषति (jóṣati, “to like, enjoy”).

• enPR: cho͞oz, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃuːz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz
• Homophone: chews

choose (third-person singular simple present chooses, present participle choosing, simple past chose, past participle chosen)

1. To pick; to make the choice of; to select.

   I chose a nice ripe apple from the fruit bowl.

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794, page 01:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.

2. To elect.

   He was chosen as president in 1990.

3. To decide to act in a certain way.

   I chose to walk to work today.

4. To wish; to desire; to prefer.

   Choose truth, and find beauty. Choose love, and embrace change. ― Justin Deschamps

   • (Can we date this quote?) Oliver Goldsmith

     The landlady now returned to know if we did not choose a more genteel apartment.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• choice
• choosey
• chosen

choose

1. (mathematics) The binomial coefficient of the previous and following number.

   The number of distinct subsets of size k from a set of size n is ${\displaystyle {\tbinom {n}{k}}}$ or "n choose k".

• Binomial coefficient on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Middle English chose, chos, chooce, from Middle English chosen (“to choose”). Cognate with Scots chose (“choosing, choice, selection”).

choose (plural chooses)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) The act of choosing; selection.
2. (dialectal or obsolete) The power, right, or privilege of choosing; election.
3. (dialectal or obsolete) Scope for choice.

• choose in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• choose in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• cohoes