optional
/ˈɒp.ʃə.nəl/US/ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/
optional adjective: not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.
Adjective
optional (not comparable)
- Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.
- On that beach clothing is entirely optional.
- 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...2004, Paula Begoun, The Complete Beauty Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Beauty, Rodale Inc., →ISBN, page 419
- Synonyms:
- facultative, discretionary, elective, free, noncompulsory, nonmandatory, nonobligate, nonobligatory, nonrequired, nonrequisite
- Antonyms:
- compulsory, mandatory, necessary, obligatory, binding, compulsatory, decretory, forced, imperative, involuntary
Noun
optional (plural optionals)
- Something that is not compulsory, especially part of an academic course.
- In various programming languages, a kind of variable that is assigned a specific data type but may or may not hold an actual value.
- 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.2015, Richard M Reese, Learning Java Functional Programming, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 147
optional meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
optional in Hindi
- not compulsory
- वैकल्पिक vaikalpik
optional in Tamil
- விருப்புரிமையான, கட்டாயமில்லாத, விருப்பப்பட்டால் மட்டுமேயான, விருப்பத்தேர்வான
optional in Marathi
- optional, voluntary; subject to one's will
- ऐच्छिक aicchik
optional in Urdu
- optional; voluntary; at one's disposal
- اختیاری ixtiyārī
More languagesFewer languages
- optional in Bengali
- ঐচ্ছিক ōicchik, নফল nophol
- optional in Telugu
- ఐచ్ఛికం, ఆప్షనల్
- optional in Malayalam
- ഐശ്ചികമായത്, നിർബന്ധമില്ലാത്ത, ഐച്ഛികമായ, ഇച്ഛാനുസൃതം തെരഞ്ഞെടുക്കാവുന്ന
- optional in Kannada
- ನಿರ್ಬಂಧವಲ್ಲದ, ಐಚ್ಛಿಕ, ಆಯ್ಕೆಗೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟ, ಆಯಬಹುದಾದ
- optional in Gujarati
- ઓપ્શનલ, ઓપ્શનલી
- optional in Odia
- ଐଚ୍ଛିକ
- optional in Sanskrit
- वैकल्पिक vaikalpika, काम्य kā́mya
- optional in Nepali
- ऐच्छिक
- optional in Arabic
- اِخْتِيَارِيّ iḵtiyāriyy
- optional in Persian
- اختیاری extiyâri
Examples of optional in a sentence
- No English adverbs have mandatory complements, and most don't even license optional ones.
- In some languages such signaling is optional, whereas in others it is obligate.
- Tipping your driver is optional but is much appreciated.
Synonyms of optional
- facultative
- discretionary
- elective
- free
- noncompulsory
- nonmandatory
- nonobligate
- nonobligatory
- nonrequired
- nonrequisite
4 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- compulsory
- mandatory
- necessary
- obligatory
- binding
- compulsatory
- forced
- imperative
- involuntary
- nonoptional
7 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of optional
| plural | optionals |
|---|
Origin of optional
From option + -al.
Words formed from optional
Questions about optional
- What does optional mean?
- Optional means not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.
- What is optional in Hindi?
- Optional in Hindi is वैकल्पिक (vaikalpik). See Optional meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is optional?
- Optional can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce optional?
- Optional is pronounced /ˈɒp.ʃə.nəl/ (UK).
Words near optional in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: optional (page history and authors); optional (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ऐच्छिक (Marathi) (page history and authors); اختیاری (Urdu) (page history and authors); optional (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); optional (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); optional (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); optional (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); optional (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); काम्य (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); optional (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-optional.wav.
Cite this entry: “optional.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/optional. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.