optional
/ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/adjective, noun
optional is spelled O-P-T-I-O-N-A-L: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, optional means “Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in optional?
| Letters | 8: O-P-T-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.1 times per million words; the 8,146th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is optional?
Optional appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce optional?
- UK /ˈɒp.ʃə.nəl/
- US /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/
Optional has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-optional.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of optional
- optionals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does optional mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.
On that beach clothing is entirely optional.
noun
- 1
Something that is not compulsory, especially part of an academic course.
- 2
In various programming languages, a kind of variable that is assigned a specific data type but may or may not hold an actual value.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Optional in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not compulsory:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | optionnel, facultatif |
| German | freiwillig, optional, wahlfrei, fakultativ, freigestellt, wahlweise |
| Portuguese | opcional, facultativo |
| Spanish | opcional |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does optional come from?
From option + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).