CEO
Americanabbreviation
abbreviation
Etymology
Origin of CEO
First recorded in 1910–15; originally Australian
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He was widely considered to be in line to be CEO until American decided in 2016 that he wasn’t the right guy—and United snapped him up.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026
“This is not soybeans,” former CEO Richard Anderson once said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026
“I think they’re smart trying to copy us,” CEO Ed Bastian said this month.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 25, 2026
Cook is freeing up Ternus from three of the most challenging tasks facing an Apple CEO: dealing with Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping, and India’s Narendra Modi.
From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026
For the CEO with the bad hamburger meat, Sandman engages in “outrage reduction”; for the environmentalists, it’s “outrage increase.”
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.