nuclear option

noun

1

: the option of using nuclear weapons in war

… it is now unimaginable that we would use anything approaching the full measure of our military power (the nuclear option aside) in the wars we fight.

—Shelby Steele

2

: an extreme option regarded as a drastic step or last resort

The EU has most leverage over countries that are desperate to join. Once in the club, with full voting rights, countries can answer back, leaving their peers with only the nuclear option of trying to expel them.

—The Economist

specifically, US politics : a parliamentary procedure in the U.S. Senate by which the requirement of the affirmative votes of a supermajority of senators is changed to require only a simple majority to invoke cloture in order to stop a filibuster and allow a vote on a matter (such as a judicial nomination) to proceed

Since Republicans can't muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome this particular filibuster, they now want to use their authority over Senate procedures to abolish the maneuver itself, at least for judicial nominees. Exercising this "nuclear option," as it is known, would theoretically require the support of just a simple majority of senators, which Republican leaders say they are on the verge of solidifying.

—Jonathan Cohn

Examples of nuclear option in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The shift also introduces a non-nuclear option for long-range strike. —Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 10 Apr. 2026

Of course, that is the most nuclear option there and probably the most involved option. —Adam Harris, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2026

Reading the budget bill at length has long served as something of a nuclear option for House Republicans. —Seth Klamann, Denver Post, 9 Apr. 2026

In 2017, Mitch McConnell used the same nuclear option to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. —Tony Vanderhoef, Sun Sentinel, 2 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for nuclear option

• adoption