editor

American  

[ed-i-ter] / ˈɛd ɪ tər /

noun

1. a person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility related to the writing, compilation, and revision of content for a publishing firm or for a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.

   She was offered a managing editor position at a small press.

2. the supervisor or manager of a department of a newspaper, magazine, etc..

   the sports editor of a newspaper.

3. a person who edits, or selects and revises, material for publications, films, etc..

   a video editor;

   the editor of an online journal.

4. a device for viewing, cutting, and editing film or magnetic tape to make movies, audio recordings, etc.

5. Computers. a program used for writing and revising code, data, or text.

   an XML editor.

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editor British  

/ ˈɛdɪtə /

noun

1. a person who edits written material for publication

2. a person in overall charge of the editing and often the policy of a newspaper or periodical

3. a person in charge of one section of a newspaper or periodical

   the sports editor

4. films

   1. a person who makes a selection and arrangement of individual shots in order to construct the flowing sequence of images for a film

   2. a device for editing film, including a viewer and a splicer

5. television radio a person in overall control of a programme that consists of various items, such as a news or magazine style programme

6. a computer program that facilitates the deletion or insertion of data within information already stored in a computer

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• editorship
  noun

Etymology

Origin of editor

1640–50; < Medieval Latin, Late Latin: publisher; see edit, -tor

Explanation

Newspaper editors don't write the stories, but they come up with the story ideas, assign them to writers, read all of the drafts, and correct and change them to make them ready to be published. You can be an editor without working at a newspaper. Magazines and books are all worked on by editors. There are photo editors and film editors, who splice together the footage and determine a movie's pacing. Even if you just correct your friend's spelling mistakes, you're editing her work.

Example Sentences

Alexis R. Garcia is a senior editor of multimedia at Investor’s Business Daily.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026

The past year—which included parent company Paramount’s controversial merger with Skydance Media, and the installment of Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor in chief—has been one of the rockiest in 60 Minutes’ decadeslong history.

From Slate • Jun. 5, 2026

It’s possible that CBS will calm down, and that Bilton will prove himself to be an independent editor able to attract talent and cultivate great journalism.

From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026

Snow was the lead presenter on Channel 4 News from 1989 to 2021, after serving as ITN's Washington correspondent and diplomatic editor in the 80s.

From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026

Gossip was becoming news, and the powerful editor didn’t like it.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock