execute

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To carry out a plan, order, or task.

   The team executed the project exactly as planned.

2. 2
   verb

   To kill someone as a legal punishment for a serious crime.

   The prisoner was executed at dawn.

3. 3
   verb

   To make a contract or other document legally valid by signing it.

   Both parties executed the contract in front of a lawyer.

4. 4
   verb

   (of a computer) To run a program or instruction.

   The computer executes the commands one line at a time.

From Old French executer (French exécuter), from Latin exsecutus, past participle of exsequor (“to follow (up/through)”, particularly in the sense “to go through with a deed or punishment”), from ex- (“out”) + sequor (“to follow”).

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