An Option is the rights to buy something in the future at an...

An Option is the rights to buy something in the future at an agreed price.

The concept doesn't just apply to stocks and shares.

Building developers for example may find a property on the market and approach the owner and offer to pay a holding fee to purchase in the future.

What they are saying is "we need more time to decide if this property is suitable for our development project. We'll pay you $100k to take it off the market for 3 months while we do our feasibility study. During that 3 months we agree to purchase it for $30 million at our option."

The property owner gets $100k in their pocket immediately, and even if the developer doesn't proceed with the purchase, they can put it back on the market. But more likely, the developer will "exercise their option" and proceed with the purchase because they wouldn't put-up $100k if they weren't already confident the property was suitable.

For the developer, it limits their risk. If their feasibility study demonstrates the development is unlikely to work they haven't risked $30 million. And they have bought time to undertake the study knowing that they can't be gazumped by another developer because they have first rights to purchase.
They have also fixed the price for the property purchase. Thus, their feasibility study can be based on an actual purchase price and not the vagaries of an auction.

In this example...
The option price is $100k
The option expires in 3 months
The strike price is $30 million.

During that 3 months, the developer might also attempt to find another buyer who is willing to buy the property at a higher price (for example an offshore investor).
If they can find a buyer willing to pay $32 million, they can flip the property immediately and make a $2 million profit.

Stocks and shares
Listed companies can also issue options that allow us punters to manage our investment risk.
Let's say I want to "make a killing" investing in early stage biotechnology stocks.
I have done extensive analysis and research on 50 such companies and narrowed the field down to 5 very promising stocks.
I have 100k to invest.
Do I spread the risk and invest $20k in each?
Or, do I try to pick a winner?

To "make a killing" I need millions of share in the winning stock, spreading my stake over 5 companies limits the upside should one of them make it big.
Buying options allows you to have a huge number of POTENTIAL shares in all 5 companies.

Only ONE needs to be well above the odds by the expiry date.