Option

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: op=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

Option, n. [L. optio; akin to optare to choose, wish, optimus best, and perh. to E. apt: cf. F. option.].

•  The power of choosing; the right of choice or election; an alternative.  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]
•  The exercise of the power of choice; choice.  [1913 Webster]

  "Transplantation must proceed from the option of the people, else it sounds like an exile."  [1913 Webster]
•  A wishing; a wish.  Bp. Hall.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  A stipulated privilege, given to a party in a time contract, of demanding its fulfillment on any day within a specified limit; also, the contract giving that privelege; as, an option to buy a stock at a given price; to exercise an option.  [1913 Webster]

  " A person owning a stock may sell to another person an option or right to buy that stock at some specified price within a specified period of time, and in return will get a premium in consideration for giving the option. If the option price (the strike price) is above the market value for the entire period in which the option is valid, the option is typically not exercised, and expires with no need on the part of the stock owner to transfer the actual stock itself. If however the stock price rises above the option price, the holder of the option may exercise the option, and buy the stock at the specificed price, and may in turn resell the stock at the current market value, perhaps making a net profit on the transaction. The original holder of the stock will receive, in addition to the price at which the stock is sold, the price of the option, and will generally receive more money than if the stock itself were sold at the time that the option was sold. The actual profits for the transaction will depend on the fees that brokers charge for conducting the sales of options and stocks."  [PJC]

Buyer's option, an option allowed to one who contracts to buy stocks at a certain future date and at a certain price, to demand the delivery of the stock (giving one day's notice) at any previous time at the market price. -- Seller's option, an option allowed to one who contracts to deliver stock art a certain price on a certain future date, to deliver it (giving one day's notice) at any previous time at the market price. Such options are privileges for which a consideration is paid. -- Local option. See under Local.

Syn. -- Choice; preference; selection.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Option, n.
1 a the act or an instance of choosing; a choice. b a thing that is or may be chosen (those are the options).
2 the liberty of choosing; freedom of choice.
3 Stock Exch. etc. the right, obtained by payment, to buy, sell, etc. specified stocks etc. at a specified price within a set time.

Idiom

have no option but to must. keep (or leave) one's options open not commit oneself.

Etymology

F or f. L optio, stem of optare choose

THESAURUS

Option

alternate choice, alternative, call, chance, choice, discretion, druthers, election, emption, first option, first refusal, free choice, free decision, free will, full consent, noncontingent free will, opportunity, optionality, pleasure, possible choice, preemption, preference, prerogative, privilege, put, put and call, recourse, refusal, right, right of emption, right of preemption, say, say-so, selection, spread, stock option, straddle, strap, strip, way out, will and pleasure

ROGET THESAURUS

Option

Will

N will, volition, conation, velleity, liberum arbitrium, will and pleasure, free will, freedom, discretion, option, voluntariness, spontaneity, spontaneousness, originality, pleasure, wish, mind, desire, frame of mind, intention, predetermination, selfcontrol, determination, force of will, voluntary, volitional, willful, free, optional, discretional, discretionary, volitient, volitive, minded, prepense, intended, autocratic, unbidden &c (bid), spontaneous, original, unconstrained, voluntarily, at will, at pleasure, a volonte, a discretion, al piacere, ad libitum, ad arbitrium, as one thinks proper, as it seems good to, a beneplacito, of one's won accord, of one's own free will, proprio motu, suo motu, ex meromotu, out of one's won head, by choice, purposely, deliberately, stet pro ratione voluntas, sic volo sic jubeo, a vostro beneplacito, beneficium accipere libertatem est vendere, Deus vult, was man nicht kann meiden muss man willig leiden.

Choice

N choice, option, discretion, preoption, alternative, dilemma, embarras de choix, adoption, cooptation, novation, decision, election, political election (politics), selection, excerption, gleaning, eclecticism, excerpta, gleanings, cuttings, scissors and paste, pick, preference, prelation, opinion poll, survey, predilection, optional, discretional, eclectic, choosing, preferential, chosen, choice, optionally, at pleasure, either the one or the other, or at the option of, whether or not, once and for all, for one's money, by choice, by preference, in preference, rather, before.

Possession

N possession, seizin, seisin, ownership, occupancy, hold, holding, tenure, tenancy, feodality, dependency, villenage, villeinage, socage, chivalry, knight service, exclusive possession, impropriation, monopoly, retention, prepossession, preoccupancy, nine points of the law, corner, usucaption, future possession, heritage, inheritance, heirship, reversion, fee, seigniority, primogeniture, ultimogeniture, futures contract, warrant, put, call, option, right of first refusal, bird in hand, uti possidetis, chose in possession, possessing, worth, possessed of, seized of, master of, in possession of, usucapient, endowed with, blest with, instinct with, fraught with, laden with, charged with, possessed, on hand, by one, in hand, in store, in stock, in one's hands, in one's grasp, in one's possession, at one's command, at one's disposal, one's own, unsold, unshared, entbehre gern was du nicht hast, meum et tuum, tuum est.