Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
discretional

discretional

7.4
Left to a person's choice or judgment
  • adjective
  • /dɪsˈkrɛʃənl/
translation icon : discrecional
  • The manager has the discretional authority to approve vacation requests.

Examples

  • Pfeffer (1978) contends, "Power and control accrue to those positions with the discretional control over critical and scarce resources" (p. 239).

    Academic text (2008)

  • He made a discretional decision based on his experience in the field.

  • Students are free to choose their own projects, as this assignment is discretional.

Synonyms

discretionary
vsdiscretional
46 6.7

Available for you to use or choose

is the same in meaning but differs only as an alternative form
facultative
vsdiscretional
9.1

Not required and left to each person's choice

stresses decisions made by individual judgment rather than mere optionality

Antonyms

mandatory
1 3.5

A thing people must do or have because of rules

How Optional

voluntary
180 3.7
discretional
7.4
optional
99 3.3
mandatory
239 3.8

Surface Forms

discretional positive

Morphology

discretional = discretion (transparent) = discretion + al

The adjective is built directly from the noun 'discretion' plus the productive suffix '-al', so the meaning is straightforwardly related to judgment or choice.

Etymology

Discretional comes from discretion, which has the parts dis- 'apart' and cernere 'to separate' or 'to judge'. A helpful image is 'picking things apart in your mind' to decide. So if something is discretional, it is left to a person's own choice or judgment.