In addition to the ability to define a long and short (one character) name for an option, is there a way to provide an "in-between" name? This way an alias, acronym, or mnemonic version could be provided. For example: desc.add_options() ( "very-long-option-name,vlon,v", value< string >, "a long option name" ) ; and cout << desc would print something like: -v | -vlon | --very-long-option-name arg : a long option name I would also not mind giving up the single-character version in favor of a mnemonic: desc.add_options() ( "very-long-option-name,vlon", value< string >, "a long option name" ) ; cout << desc would print: -vlon [--very-long-option-name] arg : a long option name -- Joe Higham / Blue Sky Studios