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 nuclear option ended the filibuster for all federal judicial appointments — including the Supreme Court. —Letters To The Editor, Orlando Sentinel, 7 July 2024

And of course, there's always the nuclear option: Impeachment. —David Pogue, CBS News, 30 June 2024

Now, though, a paper in Science magazine has identified a significant wrinkle in this nuclear option: HALEU fuel can theoretically be used to make a fission bomb—a fact that the paper’s authors use to argue for the tightening of regulations governing access to, and transportation of, the material. —IEEE Spectrum, 17 June 2024

And yes, there are dragons — a fire-breathing metaphor for the nuclear option as the war councils debate how to deploy them. —Samantha Miller, Peoplemag, 15 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined at sense 1