censorship

American  

[sen-ser-ship] / ˈsɛn sərˌʃɪp /

noun

1. the act or practice of censoring.

2. the office or power of a censor.

3. the time during which a censor holds office.

4. the inhibiting and distorting activity of the Freudian censor.

---

censorship British  

/ ˈsɛnsəˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a policy or programme of censoring

2. the act or system of censoring

3. psychoanal the activity of the mind in regulating impulses, etc, from the unconscious so that they are modified before reaching the conscious mind

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anticensorship
  adjective
• precensorship
  noun
• self-censorship
  noun
• procensorship
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of censorship

First recorded in 1585–95; censor + -ship

Explanation

Censorship blocks something from being read, heard, or seen. If you've ever heard the sound of bleeping when someone is speaking on television, that's censorship. To "censor" is to review something and to choose to remove or hide parts of it that are considered unacceptable. Censorship is the name for the process or idea of keeping things like obscene word or graphic images from an audience. There is also such a thing as self-censorship, which is when you refrain from saying certain things — or possibly re-wording them — depending on who is listening.

Related Words

• ban
• blackout
• restriction
• suppression