Choose vs Prefer - What's the difference?
choose | prefer |
To pick; to make the choice of; to select.
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*
*: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.
To elect.
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To decide to act in a certain way.
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To wish; to desire; to prefer.
*(Oliver Goldsmith) (1730-1774)
*:The landlady now returned to know if we did not choose a more genteel apartment.
(mathematics) The binomial coefficient of the previous and following number.
(dialectal, or, obsolete) The act of choosing; selection.
(dialectal, or, obsolete) The power, right, or privilege of choosing; election.
(dialectal, or, obsolete) Scope for choice.
*, II.3.2:
*:Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers.
(lb) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
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*:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."
(lb) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").
*1630 , , True Travels , in Kupperman 1988, p.36:
*:one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King James.
*1817 , (Walter Scott), , XVII:
*:Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept.
prefer'' + noun + ''to'' (or ''over'') + noun. Example: ''I prefer coffee to tea .
* prefer'' + gerund + ''to'' (or ''over'') + gerund. Example: ''I prefer skiing to swimming .
* prefer'' + full infinitive + ''rather than'' + bare infinitive. Example: ''I prefer to eat fish rather than (eat) meat .
As verbs the difference between choose and prefer
is that choose is to pick; to make the choice of; to select while prefer is to advance, promote (someone).As a conjunction choose
is the binomial coefficient of the previous and following number.As a noun choose
is the act of choosing; selection.choose
English
(Choice)Alternative forms
* chuseEtymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Verb
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeConjunction
(English Conjunctions)- The number of distinct subsets of size ''k'' from a set of size ''n'' is or "''n'' choose ''k''".