Option

How to spell option

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce option

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does option mean?

1. nounA thing that may be chosen; a possibility available among others.
2. nounA contract giving the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a set price.

Option in a sentence

• Working from home is an option for most of the team.

• The trader exercised the option before it expired.

• The menu offered a vegetarian option at every course.

• Employees were granted a share option as part of their pay.

Where does option come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin optionem, the accusative form of optio, which meant 'a free choice' or 'the act of choosing'. That noun grew from the verb optare, meaning 'to choose, to wish, to select', the same root that gives English 'opt' and 'adopt'. It travelled into English through French in the early 1600s, at first in the sense of the freedom to make a choice. Over time it broadened to mean any one of the things available to be chosen, and in finance it took on the specialised meaning of a contract granting the right to buy or sell. The clean -tion ending is reliable here, so the only real care is remembering the single 'p' rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• opt- (from optare: to choose)
• -ion (noun suffix denoting an action or result)