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.

---

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

---

expiration Scientific  

/ ĕk′spə-rā′shən /

1. See exhalation

---

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

Indian authorities raided an operation in Mumbai that faked expiration dates on food products manufactured by PepsiCo, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Unilever.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

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

Anyway, the expiration date on them wasn’t going to hit for another eight-hundred-million miles.

From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith

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

Bristol-Myers Squibb is staring down immediate patent expirations on such core revenue drivers as the cancer blockbuster Opdivo and the blood thinner Eliquis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 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

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

The screaming of infants consists of prolonged expirations, with short and rapid, almost spasmodic inspirations, followed at a somewhat more advanced age by sobbing.

From The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

Related Words

• expiry
• termination