CTO

American

Or C.T.O.

abbreviation

chief technology officer; chief technical officer: an executive in an organization who oversees policies and decisions relating to technology and science.

CTO British

abbreviation

cancelled to order (of postage stamps); postmarked in sheets for private sale

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of CTO

First recorded in 1985–90

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.

Seagate CEO and CTO sold shares on June 12 as “sell-to-cover” transactions to meet tax obligations from vested restricted stock units.

From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026

Infleqtion CTO Pranav Gokhale sold 120,000 shares for $2 million on June 4, retaining a $30 million stake.

From Barron's • Jun. 11, 2026

Additionally, Nvidia has “made a significant investment” in the company, it said, which was founded and is led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 10, 2026

Murati responded that Zoph was already CTO and asked why he hadn’t been doing his job for months, they said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 21, 2026

Murati, who was previously OpenAI’s CTO, raised one of the largest seed rounds in Silicon Valley history for a company she pitched as a way to make AI systems more customizable.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 17, 2026

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023