executionnoun
uk/ˌek.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/us/ˌek.səˈkjuː.ʃən/execution noun (KILLING)
[ C or U ] the legal punishment of killing someone:
Execution is still the penalty in some states for murder.
The executions will be carried out by a firing squad.
More examples
- Many people believe that execution has no place in the penal system of a civilized society.
- Henry VIII ordered the execution of two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.
- The convicted double murderer is facing execution in the morning.
- The soldiers were arrested in connection with the alleged illegal execution of prisoners during the war.
- Hanging was the usual form of execution practised in Britain.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Death penalties
- behead
- burn
- capital punishment
- chair
- condemn
- condemn sb to (do) sth
- condemned
- decapitate
- execute
- executioner
- gallows
- garrotte
- hangman
- hung, drawn, and quartered idiom
- noose
- scaffold
- stake
- stone
- string
- string sb up
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execution noun (ACTION)
[ U ] the act of doing or performing something, especially in a planned way:
Sometimes in the execution of their duty the police have to use firearms.
Although the original idea was good, its execution has been disappointing.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Acting and acts
- (your) every move idiom
- -ation
- act/do sth on your own responsibility idiom
- action
- activity
- agency
- ant
- be up to sth idiom
- feel
- gambit
- give yourself over/up to sth
- go about sth
- go about your business idiom
- go through with sth
- hand
- initiative
- manoeuvre
- manoeuvring
- money
- up to
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