Change the option text
<html> <head> <script type="text/javascript"> function changeText(){ var x=document.getElementById("aSelectControl") x.options[x.selectedIndex].text="Melon" } </script> </head> <body> <form> Select your favorite language: <select id="aSelectControl"> <option>Java</option> <option>Perl</option> <option>PHP</option> </select> <br><br> <input type="button" onclick="changeText()" value="Change text of selected language"> </form> </body> </html>