Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Left to choice; not compulsory or automatic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Left to one's option or choice; depending on choice or preference.
- Leaving something to choice; involving a power of choice or option.
- noun In the colleges of the United States, an elective study, or one left to choice; an elective.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Involving an option; depending on the exercise of an option; left to one's discretion or choice; allowed but not compulsory
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
compulsory ; left topersonal choice ;elective .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective possible but not necessary; left to personal choice
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word optional.
Examples
-
The word optional was neither uttered nor implied.
Parents Behaving Badly Scott Gummer 2011
-
The word optional was neither uttered nor implied.
Parents Behaving Badly Scott Gummer 2011
-
Its most recent issue, however, features what it calls "optional inflation hedges" - for investors who want additional protection beyond that offered by its actively managed "Upgraded" portfolios.
-
While i agree that the idea of making senior year optional is a terrible one … it is not as offensive as one of the other mentioned ideas
-
While i agree that the idea of making senior year optional is a terrible one … it is not as offensive as one of the other mentioned ideas
-
But, making the public plan optional is not only better political strategy, it is better public policy in our federal system.
Heads up staffers, tips to avoid a Health Care "Town Hell" (Blog for Democracy) 2009
-
A more general answer is that I'd prefer licensure be optional from the buyer's perspective.
What Do You Want to Be Free to Choose?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
Usernames being optional is fine, but like Twitter, Facebook should err on the side of caution and keep it simple.
-
Mr. QUIGLEY: When we take a step back and look at the words that Monteverdi himself wrote in the print, we see that the word optional is used a whole heck of a lot.
-
Mr. QUIGLEY: When we take a step back and look at the words that Monteverdi himself wrote in the print, we see that the word optional is used a whole heck of a lot.
vanishedone commented on the word optional
Oddly enough, 'X is not an option' conveys the opposite of 'X is not optional'.
November 28, 2009