initialism🔤 abbreviation
CEO
chief executive officer
What it means
CEO stands for 'chief executive officer' — the highest-ranking leader of a company, responsible for major decisions and overall direction. It belongs to a family of 'C-suite' titles (CFO for finance, COO for operations, CTO for technology).
Words like “CEO” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.
Examples
- The CEO announced record profits this quarter.
- She became CEO at just 34.
- Our CEO sent a company-wide email this morning.
- Before founding his startup, he was CEO of a larger firm.
Where it comes from
A corporate initialism that became standard in the second half of the 20th century as companies formalized executive hierarchies.
Related abbreviations
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