diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 6e890a6b9..c6c929791 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ option(USE_DEFLATE "Use libdeflate instead of libz" ON)
 option(USE_DOXYGEN "Build HTML cross reference with doxygen" OFF)
 option(USE_GPM "Enable libgpm console mouse support" OFF)
 option(USE_PANDOC "Build man pages and HTML reference with pandoc" ON)
-option(BUILD_BINARIES "Build binaries" ON)
+option(BUILD_EXECUTABLES "Build executables" ON)
 option(USE_POC "Build small, uninstalled proof-of-concept binaries" ON)
 option(USE_QRCODEGEN "Enable libqrcodegen QR code support" OFF)
 option(USE_STATIC "Build static libraries (in addition to shared)" ON)
@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@ elseif(${USE_MULTIMEDIA} STREQUAL "oiio")
 elseif(NOT ${USE_MULTIMEDIA} STREQUAL "none")
   message(FATAL_ERROR "USE_MULTIMEDIA must be one of 'oiio', 'ffmpeg', 'none' (was '${USE_MULTIMEDIA}').")
 endif()
-if (NOT BUILD_BINARIES AND USE_POC)
-  message(WARNING "Disabling USE_POC since BUILD_BINARIES=OFF")
+if (NOT BUILD_EXECUTABLES AND USE_POC)
+  message(WARNING "Disabling USE_POC since BUILD_EXECUTABLES=OFF")
   set(USE_POC OFF)
 endif()
 
@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@ endif()
 file(GLOB MANSOURCE1 CONFIGURE_DEPENDS doc/man/man1/*.md)
 file(GLOB MANSOURCE3 CONFIGURE_DEPENDS doc/man/man3/*.md)
 
-if(BUILD_BINARIES)
+if(BUILD_EXECUTABLES)
 ############################################################################
 # notcurses-demo
 file(GLOB DEMOSRCS CONFIGURE_DEPENDS src/demo/*.c)
@@ -741,7 +741,7 @@ endif()
 else() 
   # No binaries built
   set(MANSOURCE1 "")
-endif() # BUILD_BINARIES
+endif() # BUILD_EXECUTABLES
 
 ############################################################################
 # testing
@@ -1000,7 +1000,7 @@ file(GLOB MARKDOWN CONFIGURE_DEPENDS *.md)
 list(FILTER MARKDOWN EXCLUDE REGEX "INSTALL.md")
 install(FILES ${MARKDOWN} DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_DOCDIR})
 
-if(BUILD_BINARIES)
+if(BUILD_EXECUTABLES)
 install(TARGETS notcurses-demo DESTINATION bin)
 install(TARGETS notcurses-info DESTINATION bin)
 install(TARGETS ncneofetch DESTINATION bin)
@@ -1015,7 +1015,7 @@ install(TARGETS ncls DESTINATION bin)
 install(TARGETS ncplayer DESTINATION bin)
 endif()
 endif()
-endif() # BUILD_BINARIES
+endif() # BUILD_EXECUTABLES
 
 LIST(APPEND INSTLIBS notcurses-core notcurses)
 if(${USE_STATIC})