optional

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English option

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālisbor.

Old French -albor.

▲

Latin -ālis

Old French -elbor.

▲

Latin -ālisbor.

Middle English -al

English -al

English optional

From option + -al.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒp.ʃə.nəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

optional (not comparable)

1. Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.

   Synonyms: facultative; see also Thesaurus:optional

   Antonyms: compulsory, mandatory, necessary, obligatory; see also Thesaurus:compulsory

   On that beach clothing is entirely optional.

   • 2004, Paula Begoun, The Complete Beauty Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Beauty, Rodale Inc., →ISBN, page 419:

     Do you need to wear eyeliner? As with any makeup step, eyeliner is completely optional. From an artistic perspective, if you are wearing eyeshadow, I almost always recommend wearing eyeliner, unless your eyelids and eyelashes are obscured by the eyebrow area. Eyeliner is a basic part of an eye-makeup design because it shapes and defines the eyes and makes the eyelashes look thicker.

Antonyms

• non-optional, nonoptional

Derived terms

• clothing optional
• optionalize
• unoptional

Related terms

• option
• optionality
• optionally

Descendants

• → Dutch: optioneel
  • → Indonesian: opsional

Translations

not compulsory

• Afrikaans: opsioneel
• Arabic: اِخْتِيَارِيّ (iḵtiyāriyy)
• Armenian: կամընտիր (kaməntir), ոչ պարտադիր (očʻ partadir)
• Belarusian: неабавязко́вы (njeabavjazkóvy), факультаты́ўны (fakulʹtatýwny), апцыяна́льны (apcyjanálʹny)
• Bengali: ঐচ্ছিক (bn) (ōicchik), নফল (bn) (nophol)
• Bulgarian: незадължителен (bg) (nezadǎlžitelen), по избор (po izbor)
• Catalan: opcional
• Czech: volitelný m
• Danish: valgfri (da), frivillig (da)
• Dutch: optioneel (nl)
• Finnish: valinnainen (fi)
• French: optionnel (fr), facultatif (fr)
• Georgian: ნებაყოფლობითი (nebaq̇oplobiti), არასავალდებულო (arasavaldebulo), ფაკულტატიური (paḳulṭaṭiuri), ფაკულტატური (paḳulṭaṭuri), დისკრეციული (disḳreciuli), დისპოზიტიური (disṗoziṭiuri)
• German: freiwillig (de), optional (de), wahlfrei (de), fakultativ (de), freigestellt (de), wahlweise (de), nicht zwingend vorgeschrieben, nicht zwingend erforderlich
• Greek: προαιρετικός (el) m (proairetikós), κατ' εκλογήν (kat' eklogín)
• Hindi: वैकल्पिक (hi) (vaikalpik)
• Hungarian: választható (hu), fakultatív (hu), tetszőleges (hu), elhagyható (hu), opcionális (hu)
• Icelandic: valfrjáls
• Italian: facoltativo (it), volontario (it), opzionale (it), ^{(please verify)} a discrezione, ^{(please verify)} non obbligatorio
• Latin: facultativus
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: valgfri (no), frivillig, fakultativ

  Nynorsk: valfri, friviljug, frivillig, fakultativ

• Persian: اختیاری (fa) (extiyâri)
• Polish: opcjonalny, fakultatywny (pl)
• Portuguese: opcional (pt), facultativo (pt)
• Russian: необяза́тельный (ru) (neobjazátelʹnyj), факультати́вный (ru) (fakulʹtatívnyj) (e.g. subject), опциона́льный (ru) (opcionálʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: изборно n, изборан m, изборна f

  Latin: izborno (sh) n, izboran (sh) m, izborna (sh) f

• Spanish: opcional (es)
• Swedish: valfri (sv) c, valfritt (sv) n, frivillig (sv) c, frivilligt (sv) n, fakultativ (sv) c, fakultativt (sv) n, volontär (sv)
• Tigrinya: ኣማራጽያዊ (ʾamaraṣyawi)
• Turkish: ihtiyari (tr), isteğe bağlı, istemli (tr), opsiyonel, opsiyonlu (tr)
• Ukrainian: необов'язко́вий (neobovʺjazkóvyj), факультати́вний (fakulʹtatývnyj), опціона́льний (uk) (opcionálʹnyj)
• Yiddish: ברירהדיק (breyredik)

Noun

optional (plural optionals)

1. Something that is not compulsory, especially part of an academic course.
2. (programming, sometimes capitalized) In various programming languages, a kind of variable that is assigned a specific data type but may or may not hold an actual value.
   • 2015, Richard M Reese, Learning Java Functional Programming, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 147:

     In functional languages, there is a data type called the option type, also called the maybe type. Its purpose is to encapsulate a value, which is returned from a function. […] In Java 8, the Optional class has been added to serve as an option type.

Anagrams

• Politano

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔptsɪ̯oˈnaːl/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: op‧ti‧o‧nal

Adjective

optional (strong nominative masculine singular optionaler, not comparable)

1. optional

Declension

Positive forms of optional (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist optional	sie ist optional	es ist optional	sie sind optional
strong declension (without article)	nominative	optionaler	optionale	optionales	optionale
	genitive	optionalen	optionaler	optionalen	optionaler
	dative	optionalem	optionaler	optionalem	optionalen
	accusative	optionalen	optionale	optionales	optionale
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der optionale	die optionale	das optionale	die optionalen
	genitive	des optionalen	der optionalen	des optionalen	der optionalen
	dative	dem optionalen	der optionalen	dem optionalen	den optionalen
	accusative	den optionalen	die optionale	das optionale	die optionalen
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein optionaler	eine optionale	ein optionales	(keine) optionalen
	genitive	eines optionalen	einer optionalen	eines optionalen	(keiner) optionalen
	dative	einem optionalen	einer optionalen	einem optionalen	(keinen) optionalen
	accusative	einen optionalen	eine optionale	ein optionales	(keine) optionalen

Further reading

• “optional” in Duden online
• “optional”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English optional.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔp.ʃo.nal/
• Rhymes: -ɔpʃonal

Noun

optional m (invariable)

1. optional accessory
2. handicap (horse racing)

Anagrams

• pilotano