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executive

UK/ɪɡˈzɛkjʊtɪv/US/ɪɡˈzɛkjətɪv/
nounB2Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,355 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: executives

An executive is a senior manager who makes decisions in a company. A chief executive, executive team, an executive decision.

The word means the part that carries things out, which is why the executive branch of government is the one that acts, as against the legislature that makes law. An executive decision is one taken alone and quickly.

NZCoaster · CC0

Definitions of executive

  1. 1nounexecutiveA senior manager who makes decisions in a company.B2

    “She's a senior executive at a large bank and often works late.”

executive is a manager.

Where it comes from

Latin exsequi means to follow out or carry out, from ex- plus sequi, to follow.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *sekʷ-

  2. Latin

    executivus

  3. Middle French

    executif

  4. English, today

    executive

From Middle French executif, from Latin executivus, from Latin exsequi, from ex- ‘out’ + sequi ‘follow’.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

executive in the wild

  • The executive is the part of the government that executes or enforces the law and policy of a government.

    Executive (government)

  • The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

    President of the United States

  • Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government and vests executive power in the president.

    President of the United States

  • Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the President of India being the nominal head of the executive.

    Prime Minister of India

  • The Cabinet does not have any collective executive powers or functions of its own, and no votes need to be taken.

    Cabinet of the United States

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.