chief executive

American  

[cheef ig-zek-yuh-tiv] / ˈtʃif ɪgˈzɛk jə tɪv /

noun

• chief executives
  plural

1. the president of the United States.

   the powers of the chief executive, as granted by the Constitution.

2. the governor of a U.S. state.

   the newly elected chief executive of Rhode Island.

3. the head of a government.

   a conference attended by all the European chief executives.

4. Also called chief executive officer.  the head of an organization, company, etc..

   the chief executive of a media corporation.

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chief executive British  

noun

1. the person with overall responsibility for the efficient running of a company, organization, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• chief executives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of chief executive

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chief executive

PayPal’s new chief executive, Enrique Lores, is mapping out plans for going it alone rather than selling the company.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, this week signaled to staff a willingness to unilaterally slow their work on frontier systems.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

The former chief executive of Southern Water has appeared in court charged with conspiracy to defraud, over allegations water quality tests were manipulated to avoid penalties.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

“This is highly symptomatic of someone with an unfair information advantage,” said Nicolas Vaiman, co-founder and chief executive of Bubblemaps.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Since there had never been a republican chief executive, there was no readily available vocabulary to characterize such a creature, except the verbal traditions that had built up around European courts and kings.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis