executive

• exe., exec., execu. (abbreviation)

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjʊtɪv/, /ɛɡˈzɛkjʊtɪv/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɛkjətɪv/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɡzɪkjuːʈɪv/

executive (comparative more executive, superlative most executive)

1. Designed or fitted for execution, or carrying into effect.
2. Of, pertaining to, or having responsibility for the day-to-day running of an organisation, business, country, etc.

   executive act

   an executive officer

   executive government

3. Exclusive.

   She works in an office with an executive bathroom.

executive (plural executives)

1. A chief officer or administrator, especially one who can make significant decisions on their own authority.
   • 2024 April 6, Cade Metz, Cecilia Kang, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson, Nico Grant, “How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 7 April 2024:

     In May, Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, acknowledged that A.I. companies would use up all viable data on the internet. […] Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, had invested in A.I. for years — but suddenly found himself behind when OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. He immediately pushed to match and exceed ChatGPT, calling executives and engineers at all hours of the night to push them to develop a rival chatbot, said three current and former employees, who were not authorized to discuss confidential conversations.

2. The branch of government that is responsible for enforcing laws and judicial decisions, and for the day-to-day administration of the state.
3. (computing) A process that coordinates and governs the action of other processes or threads; supervisor.
   • 1973, ACM Special Interest Group in Operating Systems, Fourth Symposium on Operating System Principles

     The second phase of the executive development proceeded through two steps as stated in Section 2. First, a failsoft executive was developed providing automatic failure detection and recovery […]