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 two sides will have the opportunity to argue about the suggestions at an April trial, after which the judge will decide whether to go with the nuclear option—the breakup—or a more limited remedy. —Shawn Tully, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2024

Yet Harris’s position on the nuclear option has revealed how this politics of emergency undercuts itself, at least if the goal is preserving the American constitutional order. —Fred Bauer, National Review, 30 Sep. 2024

Those who downplay Russia’s nuclear options misunderstand the logic of coercive escalation. —Keir A. Lieber, Foreign Affairs, 24 Oct. 2023

Short of the nuclear option, Tehran has other ways of applying further pressure on Israel and its allies. —Mick Krever, CNN, 2 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined at sense 1