executive branch

[ig-zek-yuh-tiv branch]

noun

1. the branch of government charged with the execution and enforcement of laws and policies and the administration of public affairs; the executive.

executive branch

1. The branch of federal and state government that is broadly responsible for implementing, supporting, and enforcing the laws made by the legislative branch and interpreted by the judicial branch. At the state level, the executive includes governors and their staffs. At the federal level, the executive includes the president, the vice president, staffs of appointed advisers (including the cabinet), and a variety of departments and agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Postal Service (see postmaster general). The executive branch also proposes a great deal of legislation to Congress and appoints federal judges, including justices of the Supreme Court. Although the executive branch guides the nation's domestic and foreign policies, the system of checks and balances works to limit its power.

Word History and Origins

Origin of executive branch¹

First recorded in 1710–20

Example Sentences

Vought is a proponent of the “unitary executive” theory, the argument that the president should have unfettered control over every tentacle of the executive branch, including independent agencies such as the Federal Reserve.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Courts and Congress mostly looked the other way—so long as the executive branch was seen as acting in good faith, or for technical or fiscal reasons.

Read more on Barron's

This means the president should have total control over the entire executive branch, with its dozens of major governmental institutions and millions of employees.

Read more on Salon

In today’s atmosphere of radical white reassertion, drawing attention to such an honor would risk the disappearance of that now award-winning story, which still lives — and educates the public — on executive branch servers.

Read more on Salon

Discussing immigration-related contracts with industry players would represent a “clear-cut violation” of federal ethics regulations, said Don Fox, the former general counsel for the Office of Government Ethics, an independent agency in the executive branch.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• bureau 
• department