discretionary.

Left to a person’s or body’s judgment or choice rather than fixed by a binding requirement.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• discretionary decision
• discretionary spending

On the page

The discretionary decision still had to follow the published criteria.

Discretionary spending was separated from obligations already fixed by the agreement.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Normally non-gradable for a specified formal status; compare degree only where the context genuinely concerns a gradable capacity or characteristic. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: status distinction, institutional analysis, scope qualification, rights analysis. Disciplines: formal writing, institutional procedures, legal-administrative language. Commonness: moderately common.