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

A call option gives the buyer the right to purchase an underlying asset at a specified price before a predetermined expiration date.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 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

The U.K. drugmaker benefited from strong sales of cancer drugs that offset the effect of patent expirations and lifted the group’s top line.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Dates represent estimated primary patent or exclusivity expirations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 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

Apart from such ideas, the fixing of the attention on the rhythmical succession of inspirations and expirations conduces to that peaceful and detached frame of mind on which most Indian sects set great store.

From Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1 by Sir Charles Eliot

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Related Words

• expiry
• termination

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