"I sat with him hour after hour going over every conceivable nuclear option, every possible Soviet and Chinese response, not a single capability overlooked."

While we all hoped that this latest round of chemotherapy would work, we wanted to keep every conceivable option open.

"Whenever you're planning like this, you have to examine every conceivable, feasible option in your war-gaming," a Pentagon official said.

Kuwaiti dealers toss catalytic converters in the garbage, rarely order full-size cars without every conceivable option and scoff at anything less than a V-8 engine.

Plan 1040 is a $400 package for I.B.M. and compatible machines that lets the user examine every conceivable option in formulating a tax strategy.

While not strictly a pacifistic race, the Valzhan nevertheless held deep-seated convictions against violence except in defensive situations- and then only after all other conceivable options had been exhausted.

And while he probed, Vittorio drew out the conceivable options M16 might have for him.

"I see, for example, becoming an affiliate of a foreign financial institution as a conceivable option," he said.

Every conceivable diplomatic option must be exhausted.

It was a question of whether there was any conceivable option that would work.