options

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of option.

   The committee narrowed the list to three viable options.

   Travelers have fewer options once the last train has left.

   Note

   A regular plural that covers most of what the singular means: choices on a list, or contracts that let a holder buy or sell an asset at a set strike price, whether a financial asset, a residence or a car. The nationality sense, gaining citizenship by personal choice when territory changes hands, is uncountable, so it has no plural. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of option.

   A producer routinely options promising manuscripts before they reach wider attention.

   The publisher options foreign translation rights as part of every contract.

   Note

   The verb that matches the contract sense of the noun: to option something is to buy an option on it. The object is the thing secured, such as a manuscript or a set of rights, and it follows the verb directly with no preposition. A studio options a novel; it does not option on one. An older meaning, to configure something by setting an option, is now dated.

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