what “type” is an option chosen from a select tag

Question

I am new to PHP and attempting get the value of an option chosen from a select tag. I am familiar with some types of input such as radio, text, checkboxes e.t.c. my question is

Answer 1

option says that it is an option. Don't need the type attribute at all.

  First option
  Second option

this is enough markup, more here http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_select.asp