to choose: to pick out one person, place, or thing from others because it is wanted or preferred
At its core this word is the deliberate act of selecting, settling on one option out of several because you want it and not the rest. It covers an everyday choice (Lot picking the well watered plain, an army picking its best fighters, a person choosing whom to serve) and the most weighty choice in the Hebrew Bible: God settling on Israel, on David and his line, on the priesthood, and on the place where his name would dwell.
When God is the one who chooses, the word carries the freight of covenant. It does not mean God looked over the nations and found Israel the most impressive. The texts say the opposite: he set his love on them and chose them when they were the smallest and least deserving. So the word here names sovereign, undeserved commitment, a settled decision to bind himself to this people, this king, this city. To be chosen in this sense is to be claimed, not flattered.
The word also reaches toward valuing one thing over another. A choice thing is the pick of the lot, and in the wisdom writings something can be called more to be chosen than silver or gold, meaning more desirable, more worth having. Here choosing shades into prizing.
Because the act is one of preference, it naturally pairs with its opposite: to choose this is to refuse that. Several texts set the word directly against rejecting or despising, so a choice is also a verdict on what is left behind.