selectional
adjective/sɪˈlekʃənl/
/sɪˈlekʃənl/
(linguistics)- used to describe the process by which each word limits what kind of words can be used with it in normal language
- ‘Eat’ has the selectional restriction that it must be followed by a kind of food, so ‘I eat sky’ is not possible.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
selectional