option
part of speech
noun (an option, options); verb (option, options, optioned, optioning — rare, business use)
meaning for a pupil
1) One of the things you can choose from. tree →
2) The freedom or right to choose. tree →
3) A school subject you choose to study (UK). tree →
4) (formal, business) A right to buy or sell something later. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school it appears in multiple-choice questions (option A, B, C or D) and in choosing subjects. In computing, options are settings in a menu. In everyday life it means a choice. In maths, counting options leads to combinations: 3 shirts and 2 pairs of trousers give 6 options. Phrases: have no option but to, the best option, keep your options open, an optional extra.
examples
- Option C is the right answer. tree →
- We had two options: walk or take the bus. tree →
- I had no option but to wait in the rain. tree →
- The vegetarian option on the menu is pasta. tree →
- Click Options to change the sound. tree →
- She took French as one of her options. tree →
- With 4 flavours and 3 toppings there are 12 options. tree →
- Keep your options open until you have all the facts. tree →
note
Countable: an option, two options; use «an» because it starts with a vowel sound. Optional (adjective) means you may choose not to do it. In counting problems, multiply the number of options at each step to get all possible combinations.
In the corpora
- "We are reviewing our options" often means we have not decided anything.
- "We are reviewing our options" often means nothing has been decided yet.
- A dilemma is a choice in which every option has a cost.
- Some dilemmas have no clearly right choice; then we look for the least bad option and give honest reasons.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «option» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.