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PlainSpell

execution

/ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/noun

execution is spelled E-X-E-C-U-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is excecution: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 56 of all searches for the word. Execution is a noun meaning “The act, manner or style of executing (actions, maneuvers, performances)”. The plural of execution is executions.

How many letters and syllables are in execution?

Letters9: E-X-E-C-U-T-I-O-N
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing19 times per million words; the 4,365th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, excecution, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell execution?

Execution is spelled E-X-E-C-U-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 57 of the searches for execution in either form.

executionthe right spelling2,220 searches a month
excecutionan extra c40 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is execution?

Execution appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,365th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce execution?

  • /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/

Execution has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-execution.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of execution

  • executions plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does execution mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The act, manner or style of executing (actions, maneuvers, performances).

  2. 2

    The state of being accomplished.

    The mission's successful execution lifted the troops' morale.

  3. 3

    The act of putting to death or being put to death as a penalty, or actions so associated.

  4. 4

    The carrying into effect of a court judgment, or of a will.

  5. 5

    archaicSpecifically, the seizure of a debtor's goods or property in default of payment.

  6. 6

    The formal process by which a contract is made valid and put into binding effect.

  7. 7

    The carrying out of an instruction, program or program segment by a computer.

    The entire machine slowed down during the execution of the virus checker.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate execution?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of execution: E, exc.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Execution in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchexécution (act of executing or the state of being executed)
GermanAusführung (act of executing or the state of being executed), Hinrichtung, Exekution (act of putting to death or being put to death…)
Portugueseexecução (act of executing or the state of being executed)
Spanishejecución (act of executing or the state of being executed), ajusticiamiento, suplicio (act of putting to death or being put to death…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does execution come from?

From Old French execution (c.1360), from Latin exsecutiō, an agent noun from exsequor (“to follow out”), from ex (“out”) + sequor (“follow”). Equivalent to execute + -ion.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after execution