option Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the right to buy or sell property at an agreed price; the right is purchased and if it is not exercised by a stated date the money is forfeited
  2. noun one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    alternative; choice.
    • what option did I have?
    • there no other alternative
    • my only choice is to refuse
  3. noun the act of choosing or selecting
    pick; selection; choice.
    • your choice of colors was unfortunate
    • you can take your pick

WordNet

Op"tion noun
Etymology
L. optio; akin to optare to choose, wish, optimus best, and perh. to E. apt: cf. F. option.
Definitions
  1. The power of choosing; the right of choice or election; an alternative.
    There is an option left to the United States of America, whether they will be respectable and prosperous, or contemptible and miserable, as a nation. Washington.
  2. The exercise of the power of choice; choice.
    Transplantation must proceed from the option of the people, else it sounds like an exile. Bacon.
  3. A wishing; a wish. Obs. Bp. Hall.
  4. (Ch. of Eng.) A right formerly belonging to an archbishop to select any one dignity or benefice in the gift of a suffragan bishop consecrated or confirmed by him, for bestowal by himself when next vacant; -- annulled by Parliament in 1845.
  5. (Stock Exchange) A stipulated privilege, given to a party in a time contract, of demanding its fulfillment on any day within a specified limit. Syn. -- Choice; preference; selection. -- Option, Choice. Choice is an act of choosing; option often means liberty to choose, and implies freedom from constraint in the act of choosing.

Webster 1913