Selector
/sɪˈlɛktər/
Definitions
2 meaningsA person or device that chooses from a group of options or items.
/sɪˈlɛktər/
A person or thing that chooses or makes a selection.
The coach acted as the selector for the team.
💡 Simply: A selector is like a person or a thing that picks something out of a group. Like when you're shopping and you're the selector of what you like!
👶 For kids: A person or thing that chooses one thing from a group.
More Examples
The website uses a selector to display the correct content.
The selector allows you to choose your preferred option from a list.
How It's Used
"The selector of the team announced the new players."
"A CSS selector is used to target HTML elements for styling."
"Feature selectors are used to choose the most relevant features for a model."
A component or device used to select a particular option, element, or group.
/sɪˈlɛktər/
A component of a device or system that selects an item or a set of items.
The channel selector on the television was broken.
💡 Simply: It's like a switch or button that helps you pick something from a list or set of options. Like the selector on a TV remote that helps you pick your favorite show.
👶 For kids: Something that helps you pick one thing from many things. Like the button on your TV remote that picks which show you want to watch!
More Examples
The CSS selector determines which elements are styled.
The database selector retrieves the necessary data.
How It's Used
"The channel selector on a television is used to switch between different channels."
"In CSS, a selector specifies which HTML elements a style rule applies to."
Idioms & expressions
CSS selector
A string of characters that identifies the HTML elements to which CSS rules should be applied.
"The CSS selector 'h1' applies styles to all level-one headings."
feature selector
A method or algorithm used in machine learning to select a subset of relevant features from a larger set of features.
"A feature selector can improve the performance of a machine learning model by reducing dimensionality."
From the verb "select" (Latin *seligere*, meaning "to choose") + "-or" (agent suffix). It denotes a person or thing that selects.
Used in various contexts since the 19th century, first to describe individuals or things making choices and later, with technological advancements, to refer to components of devices.
Memory tip
Think of a restaurant *selector* who picks the ingredients for the dish.