expiration

American  

[ek-spuh-ray-shuhn] / ˌɛk spəˈreɪ ʃən /

noun

• expirations
  plural

1. a coming to an end; termination; close.

   the expiration of a contract.

2. the act of expiring, or breathing out; emission of air from the lungs.

3. Archaic. death.

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expiration British  

/ ˌɛkspɪˈreɪʃən /

noun

1. the finish of something; ending; expiry

2. the act, process, or sound of breathing out

3. rare a last breath; death

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expiration Scientific  

/ ĕk′spə-rā′shən /

1. See exhalation

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonexpiration
  noun
• preexpiration
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• expirations
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of expiration

1375–1425; late Middle English expiracioun < Latin expīrātiōn- (stem of expīrātiō ), equivalent to expīrāt ( us ) (past participle of ex ( s ) pīrāre to expire ) + -iōn- -ion

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Compare meaning

How does expiration compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• expiry vs. expiration

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Explanation

Expiration is what happens when a lease or contract — or a period of time — has ended. The expiration of your library card means you need to sign up for a new one. You might notice that your container of yogurt is marked with a date — it's the expiration date, or the day the product is no longer fresh enough to be sold or eaten. Other things with expiration dates include magazine subscriptions, rental agreements, and drivers' licenses. All of these are a sort of contract that eventually ends, or expires. When you breathe out, that's technically also expiration, from the Latin expirare, "breathe out," or "breathe one's last breath."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

expiration expirations

The company’s core U.S. residential business continues to face headwinds from higher interest rates and the expiration of federal tax credits.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

Wearing drill-sergeant regalia, Porowski instructs a group of hapless male shopper actors in such supermarket fundamentals as distinguishing celery from leeks, checking expiration dates and identifying ripe bananas.

From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2026

“That’s an industry discovering its value proposition has an expiration date it didn’t know about.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

At the same time, the contracts will lose some of their value as time passes and their expiration dates approach.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026

About some new expiration date the scientists have set for the planet.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day

The failures of cardiovascular and neuromuscular drugs pelacarsen and del-desiran raise the bar for Novartis’s pipeline, given that these were two important candidates to offset sales lost to upcoming patent expirations, they add.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

That means Merck, the maker of Keytruda, and Bristol Myers Squibb, who produces Opdivo, each have more than 65% of last year’s sales exposed because of these patent expirations along with others.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

But it’s cheap for a reason, with patent expirations coming up.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026

For example, an options trader might think it’s a good idea to buy October expirations now to capture this rise in volatility.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

As I listened breathlessly other sounds of the same character but in different tones joined in, human voices monotonously intoning in long drawn-out expirations the single word "bl-o-o-o-o-w."

From The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales by Frank T. Bullen

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Related Words

• expiry
• termination

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