executioner

IPA/ˌeksɪˈkjuːʃənə(r)/
KK[ˌɛksəkjˈuʃənɚ]IPA/ˌeksɪˈkjuːʃənər/

executioner — noun

  • executionersingular
  • executionersplural

1. a person whose official job is to kill someone the courts have ordered to die, u

1.nounC1
Definition

a person whose official job is to kill someone the courts have ordered to die, usually as part of a criminal punishment in a country that still uses the death penalty.

Example

The medieval executioner wore a black hood to hide his face from the crowd in the square.

definite-article + adjective + noun for historical setting

Sirin's history teacher explained how an executioner was paid extra for each beheading in 17th-century London.

indefinite-article 'an executioner' in a generalising statement

Common collocations
  • the state's executioner
  • the public executioner
  • the masked / hooded executioner
  • act as the executioner
  • the executioner's axe / block / hood
Synonyms
  • hangman

    specifically an executioner who kills by hanging; historical and informal.

  • headsman

    historical: an executioner who beheaded with an axe or sword.

  • killer

    much wider scope; any person who kills, with no official or legal role.

Grammar Patterns

the executioner of [someone]

Usage Note

Subject of action verbs like 'carry out', 'perform', 'refuse'. Often paired with the specific method as a modifier or follow-up (the masked executioner, the state's executioner, axe / firing-squad / lethal-injection executioner).

Common Mistakes

The executioner gave him a fine.
The judge gave him a fine.
an executioner only carries out a death sentence; ordinary punishments come from a judge or court.
She works as an executioner at the local prison in Norway.
She works as a prison officer at the local prison in Norway.
countries that have abolished the death penalty have no executioners.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe someone who ends a life, but the social and legal frame differs sharply. 'Executioner' is the modern, neutral, official term: the person carries out a death sentence handed down by a court, and the method may be anything from lethal injection to a firing squad. 'Hangman' narrows the method to hanging and feels distinctly historical or informal — 'the state hangman of the 1950s' rather than 'today's hangman'. 'Headsman' is even more period-specific, evoking an axe or sword and a wooden block. 'Killer', by contrast, carries no official sanction at all; it simply names anyone who has killed, often with negative force. Compare: 'The executioner placed the rope around the prisoner's neck' (legal role) versus 'The killer left no fingerprints at the scene' (criminal act).

executioner ↗hangman ↗headsman ↗killer ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • the public executioner
  • the state's executioner
  • the executioner's axe
  • act as the executioner

Prepositions

  • of (the executioner of the king)

Etymology

LatinAnglo-FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

From late Middle English, formed on the verb 'execute' plus the agent suffix '-er' (via Anglo-French and Latin 'exsequi', meaning to follow through or carry out an order). 'Execute' first meant simply 'to put into effect', and only later narrowed in legal English to 'carry out a death sentence'; the noun 'executioner' followed the verb into that specialised meaning by the 16th century.