different between choice vs wordage

English

Alternative forms

• choise, choyse (both obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English chois, from Old French chois (“choice”), from choisir (“to choose, perceive”), possibly via assumed Vulgar Latin *caus?re (“to choose”), from Gothic ???????????????????????????? (kausjan, “to make a choice, taste, test, choose”), from Proto-Germanic *kauzijan?, from *keusan? (“to choose”), from Proto-Indo-European *?ews- (“to choose”). Akin to Old High German kiosan (“to choose”), Old English ??osan (“to choose”), Old Norse kjósa (“to choose”). More at choose.

The adjectival meaning of "especially good, preferred, select" was likely influenced by Middle English chyse, chys, chis (“choice, excellent”), from Old English ??s, *??es (“choice; dainty; nice”), related to Old English ??osan (“to choose”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t???s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

choice (countable and uncountable, plural choices)

1. An option; a decision; an opportunity to choose or select something.

   Do I have a choice of what color to paint it?

2. (uncountable) The power to choose.

   She didn't leave us much choice.
3. One selection or preference; that which is chosen or decided; the outcome of a decision.

   The ice cream sundae is a popular choice for dessert.

4. Anything that can be chosen.

5. (usually with the) The best or most preferable part.
6. (obsolete) Care and judgement in selecting; discrimination, selectiveness.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms

     I imagine they [the apothegms of Caesar] were collected with judgment and choice.

   • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Part I, Section I, p. 1,^[2]

     We see children perpetually running from place to place to hunt out something new; they catch with great eagerness, and with very little choice, at whatever comes before them; their attention is engaged by every thing, because every thing has, in that stage of life, the charm of novelty to recommend it.

7. (obsolete) A sufficient number to choose among.

Synonyms

• (selection or preference): option, possibility; see also Thesaurus:option
• (anything that can be chosen): assortment, range, selection
• (definite: best or most preferable part): the cream
• (sufficient number to choose among): abundance, profusion; see also Thesaurus:cornucopia

Derived terms

• choicy
• Hercules' choice
• Hobson's choice
• Sophie's choice

Related terms

• choose
• choosey
• chosen

Translations

Adjective

choice (comparative choicer or more choice, superlative choicest or most choice)

1. Especially good or preferred.

   It's a choice location, but you will pay more to live there.
2. (obsolete) Careful in choosing; discriminating.
   • 1856, J. R. Planché (tr.), Fairy Tales by the Countess d'Aulnoy, The Princess Carpillon:

     Thus musing, he ate nothing; the Queen, believing that it was in consequence of his having been unkindly received, loaded him with caresses; she herself handed him some exquisite fruits, of which she was very choice.

Synonyms

• (especially good or preferred): prime, prize, quality, select, choicy

Translations

Interjection

choice

1. (slang, New Zealand) Cool; excellent.

   "I'm going to the movies." —"Choice!"

See also

• choicy

References

• choice at OneLook Dictionary Search
• choice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• echoic

English

Etymology

word +? -age

Noun

wordage (countable and uncountable, plural wordages)

1. Words collectively.
2. The excessive use of words; verbiage.
   • 1829 April, "Article VIII" (review of The Cause of Dry Rot Discovered), The Westminster Review, p. 417 (Google books view):

     But the plates are good, and, in reality, sufficient without all the wordage.

   • 1941, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, London: Methuen, Chapter 10, p. 122,^[1]

     Here, I think, we must class the portmanteau-wordage of James Joyce, in which the use of verbal and syllabic association is carried so far that its power of unconscious persuasion is lost and the reader’s response is diverted by a conscious ecstasy of enigma-hunting, like a pig rooting for truffles.

3. The number of words used in a text.
   • 1951 July 2, "MacArthur Hearing: Curtain," Time (retrieved 21 April 2015):

     The official transcript totaled 2,045,000 words—more than twice the wordage of the Bible.

   • 2002, Julian Barnes, “Flaubert’s Death-Masks” in Something to Declare, New York: Knopf,

     A work of elucidation couched in a lazily dense style; a biography seemingly concerned with externals but in fact spun from inside the biographer like a spider’s thread; a critical study which exceeds in wordage all the major works of its subject put together…

4. The choice of words used; phraseology.
   • 1990 May 15, Jack Curry, "Winfield Case Heads to Arbitrator," New York Times (retrieved 21 April 2015):

     "With the wordage in the contract, we think we have a good case."

Synonyms

• (excessive use of words; verbiage): wordiness
• (number of words): word count
• (choice of words): wording

References

• wordage at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• dogwear, dowager