expiration

American  

[ek-spuh-rey-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

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

Compare meaning

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

• expiry vs. expiration

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

Most of that is because of the early 2030s patent expiration of Ozempic, which generated nearly $20 billion in sales last year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The expiration of the security aid for the Peshmerga would come less than one year after the US opened its largest consulate in the world, in Irbil.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

For the stocks listed in this table, that would mean buying the straddles expiring on Aug. 21, or the next nearest date if that expiration date doesn’t exist for a particular stock.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

The letter suggests that MLB and the players union must confront this “failure” during collective bargaining negotiations that began in May and likely will continue through the expiration of the current agreement Dec. 1.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Not surprising, considering it's way the hell past its expiration date.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

The pharma industry is entering its biggest wave of patent expirations in decades.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

One of the issues that could possibly threaten the bank’s bullish thesis is the “patent cliff” approaching in 2028, where a number of major drugs are facing patent expirations.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026

The contracts currently have expirations that extend up to a decade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

That bumpy two weeks kicks off Thursday with the massive simultaneous expirations of stock options, stock-index futures and stock-index options, coming a day earlier than usual due to the Juneteenth holiday on Friday.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 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

Related Words

• expiry
• termination