Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Left to choice; not compulsory or automatic.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Left to one's option or choice; depending on choice or preference.
- Leaving something to choice; involving a power of choice or option.
- n. In the colleges of the United States, an elective study, or one left to choice; an elective.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Involving an option; depending on the exercise of an option; left to one's discretion or choice; allowed but not compulsory
WordNet 3.0
- adj. possible but not necessary; left to personal choice
Examples
“The word optional was neither uttered nor implied.”
“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”
“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
“Usernames being optional is fine, but like Twitter, Facebook should err on the side of caution and keep it simple.”
“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)
“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.”
“If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations.”
“Though updating to Google Accounts will remain optional from October 19, 2005 until January 15, 2006, we advise you to complete the process and begin using your new Google Accounts login as soon as possible.”
“The remaining 3 are "optional" - if our grade helps it'll count, if not, no sweat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘optional’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
TECH - web application frameworks
object-oriented p..., ALGOL, validation, Erlang, markup language, Python, hibernate, framework, Apache, template, mapper, Java and 310 more...
-
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
-
ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for optional.
vanishedone Oddly enough, 'X is not an option' conveys the opposite of 'X is not optional'. Nov 28, 2009