HTML
<select id="mySelect">
<option value="volvo">Volvo</option>
<option value="saab">Saab</option>
<option value="mercedes">Mercedes</option>
<option value="audi">Audi</option>
</select>
JavaScript
var mySelect = document.getElementById('mySelect'),
newOption = document.createElement('option');
newOption.value = 'bmw';
// Not all browsers support textContent (W3C-compliant)
// When available, textContent is faster (see http://stackoverflow.com/a/1359822/139010)
if (typeof newOption.textContent === 'undefined')
{
newOption.innerText = 'BMW';
}
else
{
newOption.textContent = 'BMW';
}
mySelect.appendChild(newOption);
Demo →