“Unselect” or “Deselect”?

If I want the user to revert their operation of selecting an item, should I say: “Unselect the option” or “Deselect the option”?

Answer

Dictionaries (Merriam-Webster and New Oxford American Dictionary) have deselect but not unselect. The NOAD defines deselect as “turn off (a selected feature) on a list of options on a computer menu”, which is what you want.

Unselected, on the other hand, is used to qualify something that has not been selected, not something that was selected and isn’t anymore.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Muhammad Hasan Khan , Answer Author : F’x

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