noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An official person who carries out the capital punishment of a criminal.

   "He would probably have died by the hand of the executioner, if indeed the executioner had not been anticipated by the populace."

2. 2
   an official who inflicts capital punishment in pursuit of a warrant wordnet
3. 3
   Executor. archaic
4. 4
   A hit man, especially being in some organization.

Synonyms

All synonyms

assassinbutchercannibalcarnifexcutthroatdeathsman

Example

More examples

"The mouth is the executioner and the doctor of the body."

Etymology

From execution + -er.

Related phrases

judge, jury and executionercapital punishmenthit man

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.