Selectivity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The word selectivity has several meanings:

  1. Selectivity, the ability to notice/distinguish small differences. Also the words selectiveness, refinement and discrimination are used. Discrimination is also a cultural term.
  2. Electronic selectivity
  3. In a database index, a measure for how many records will be retrieved for a given value of an attribute.
  4. In natural sciences selectivity characterises either how selective reactions occur amongst several pathways which are typical in particular for organic reactions; or selectivity characterises how selective one particular compound is recognized, or bound, by something else, e.g. by a protein, in a supramolecular host-guest complex, or by parts of a sensor. High selectivity is often called specificity.
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