This tag is for questions about choosing the best word FROM A GIVEN SELECTION for a particular context or meaning. The selection to choose from must appear in the question. If you do not know the word already, use single-word-requests.
Use this tag for questions that are about choosing the best word to fit a particular situation. For a question to be tagged thus, the alternatives to choose from must be explicitly provided by the question asker.
Where the question can easily be answered by looking up the alternative terms in a dictionary it will be Off Topic due to lack of research. Where a dictionary gives superficially similar definitions but there is a suspicion that there is some nuance which the asker has missed, a properly researched and referenced question is welcome.
Please also provide as much detail as you can about the intended context or meaning.
A few sample questions that are a good fit for this tag:
- Why do we say “under the grill”, not “above” or “on” the grill?
- What is the difference between “Per year” and “Per annum”?
- What is the difference between illegal and unlawful?
This tag should be distinguished from:
- expression-choice, which is for questions about choosing between longer phrases
- single-word-requests, which is for questions about finding a single word to fit a meaning, when you haven't yet found any alternatives to choose from
- vocabulary, which is for broader questions, e.g. those that ask for lots of words at once
