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

In recent decades, both parties have slowly weakened the minority’s power in the Senate and invoked the nuclear option to force changes in the confirmation process using only a simple majority. —Ramsey Touchberry, The Washington Examiner, 8 Sep. 2025

Senate Republicans are increasingly supportive of slashing debate time on nominees via the unilateral nuclear option, as senators now see every Senate recess as a Trump nominee cliff that gives Democrats too much leverage, according to multiple GOP sources. —Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 31 July 2025

Reid rewarded that display of cowardice by deploying the nuclear option a few months later. —Erick Erickson, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 July 2025

Banking lawyers warn the record-keeping cost could break the economics of low-margin BaaS deals, nudging software firms toward pricier state money-transmitter licenses, or the nuclear option of a national charter. —Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for nuclear option

• adoption