Executive

How to spell executive

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce executive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does executive mean?

1. nounA senior person with authority to make decisions and manage an organisation.
2. adjectiveRelating to the authority to put plans, laws, or decisions into effect.

Executive in a sentence

• noun

  The marketing executive approved the new budget this morning.

• adjective

  The board granted her broad executive power over daily operations.

• noun

  Every executive at the firm received a year-end bonus.

• adjective

  The government's executive branch enforces the laws that parliament passes.

Where does executive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb exsequi, meaning 'to follow out' or 'to carry through to the end', built from ex- 'out, thoroughly' and sequi 'to follow'. From its past participle came the sense of completing or performing a task, and Medieval Latin produced executivus for something that puts decisions into effect. English took the word in through Anglo-French and Old French during the late 1300s and 1400s, at first describing the act of carrying out a sentence or order. By the 1600s it had narrowed to the branch of government that enforces laws, and the modern business sense of a senior decision-maker grew from that same idea of someone who executes plans. The same sequi 'follow' root quietly survives in relatives such as 'sequence', 'consequence', and 'execute', which is a handy reminder that the tricky middle is spelled cut, not cute.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, thoroughly)
• secut/sequ (follow, carry out)
• -ive (adjective/noun suffix)