option
Pluraloptions
Pluraloptions
Formsoptions, optioning, optioned
- 1One of a set of choices that can be made in a given situation.
Renting remains a realistic option for families priced out of the housing market.
The committee weighed several options before settling on a hybrid schedule.
UsageSet phrase: have little option but to or no option but to do something, meaning only one choice was really open.
Similarchoice, alternative, possibility
- 2The power or privilege to make a choice of one's own.
Employees have the option of working remotely two days a week.
Voters retained the option of recalling the governor before the term ended.
UsageThe option of + -ing or the option to + verb: the option of working remotely, the option to stay home.
Oppositeobligation
- 3A contract giving the holder the right to buy or sell an asset at a set strike price, whether in financial markets or in everyday transactions such as a home purchase.
The investor's options expired worthless when the stock never reached the strike price.
She negotiated an option to buy the apartment at a fixed price within six months.
UsageAn option on a house, an option to buy; you exercise an option or let it lapse.
Note
Finance and law share this word for a right held in reserve. The holder may use it at the strike price or let it lapse. The structure reaches well beyond trading floors: the same kind of contract can fix the price of a house or a car, and a television network can buy the option on a book so that a film may be made from it.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- An option holder may exercise the right at the strike price. investor.gov
- An option holder may allow the option to expire. hdb.gov.sg
- A property purchase option can fix the purchase price. en.wikipedia.org
- A car purchase option can fix the purchase price. federalreserve.gov
- A television broadcaster can option a book for a film adaptation. publications.parliament.uk
Less common meanings
- 4In baseball, to assign a player to a minor-league team while the major-league club keeps the right to bring him back.
The club plans to option the rookie outfielder to Triple-A before Opening Day.
After two rough starts, the front office optioned him to the minors to work on his control.
UsageUsually with the level the player goes to, often passive: he was optioned to Triple-A, optioned to the minors.
Similardemote
Oppositerecall
Note
Baseball's verb borrows the logic of the contract meaning: the major-league club holds a right it can exercise later, here the right to call the player back. A player sent down this way still belongs to the club, which is what sets it apart from a release.
- 5To acquire, for a fee, an option on something, securing the right to buy or use it later on agreed terms.
The producer optioned her memoir within weeks of its release.
A buyer can option farmland for a small fee while arranging financing.
UsageMost often in film and publishing: a studio options a novel, or the novel is optioned by a studio.
- 6To configure a device or program by setting an option.
Factory workers optioned each unit for the regional power standard before packing it.
The device that is to echo the characters should be optioned for echoplexing.
1991, Martin D. Seyer, RS-232 made easyNote
Hardware talk from the age of serial connections: Martin D. Seyer's RS-232 made easy (first published 1984; second edition 1991) says a device "should be optioned for echoplexing." A reader meeting it in older manuals should take it in that sense, not as the buying sense.
- 7The acquiring or keeping of a nationality by personal choice, as a right rather than through naturalization procedures, especially when territory passes from one state to another.
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Practice
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Origin
Latin optiō ("choice; option; act of choosing"), built on optō ("I choose, select"), came into English through French option. In English terms it amounts to opt with the suffix -ion.