censor

American  

[sen-ser] / ˈsɛn sər /

noun

• censors
  plural

1. an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.

2. any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.

3. an adverse critic; faultfinder.

4. (in the ancient Roman republic) either of two officials who kept the register or census of the citizens, awarded public contracts, and supervised manners and morals.

5. (in early Freudian dream theory) the force that represses ideas, impulses, and feelings, and prevents them from entering consciousness in their original, undisguised forms.

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verb (used with object)

• censors,
  present (3rd person singular)
• censored,
  past participle,  past
• censoring
  present participle

1. to examine and act upon as a censor.

2. to delete (a word or passage of text) in one's capacity as a censor.

censor British  

/ ˈsɛnsə, sɛnˈsɔːrɪəl /

noun

1. a person authorized to examine publications, theatrical presentations, films, letters, etc, in order to suppress in whole or part those considered obscene, politically unacceptable, etc

2. any person who controls or suppresses the behaviour of others, usually on moral grounds

3. (in republican Rome) either of two senior magistrates elected to keep the list of citizens up to date, control aspects of public finance, and supervise public morals

4. psychoanal the postulated factor responsible for regulating the translation of ideas and desires from the unconscious to the conscious mind See also superego

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verb

1. to ban or cut portions of (a publication, film, letter, etc)

2. to act as a censor of (behaviour, etc)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• overcensor
  verb (used with object)
• precensor
  verb (used with object)
• recensor
  verb (used with object)
• anticensorial
  adjective
• censorable
  adjective
• censorial
  adjective
• censorian
  adjective
• noncensored
  adjective
• uncensorable
  adjective
• uncensored
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• censors
  plural

Participles

• censoring
  present
• censored
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• censor
  simple
• censors
  simple
• have censored
  perfect
• has censored
  perfect
• am censoring
  progressive
• are censoring
  progressive
• is censoring
  progressive
• have been censoring
  perfect progressive
• has been censoring
  perfect progressive

Past

• censored
  simple
• had censored
  perfect
• was censoring
  progressive
• were censoring
  progressive
• had been censoring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will censor
  simple
• will have censored
  perfect
• will be censoring
  progressive
• will have been censoring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of censor

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin cēnsor, from cēns(ēre) “to give as one's opinion, recommend, assess” + -tor -tor; -sor instead of expected -stor by analogy with tōnsor “barber,” and similarly derived nouns ( see tonsorial)

Explanation

A censor takes out things that are objectionable or inappropriate, like the censors at the TV networks bleeping out all the bad words in a show. To put it simply, a censor judges. Originating in the 1530’s, a censor was originally a Roman magistrate who took censuses and oversaw public morals. Censors today are hired by TV stations, publishers and the government to examine books, films and other material and strip out or flag all the amoral, offensive or otherwise bad stuff. Thankfully, in the U.S. free speech usually wins out over censorship.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

censor censors censored censoring

And we better hope they do, for the sake of so many other media enterprises Carr will undoubtedly pursue and hope to censor.

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2026

Yulia, who owns a catering company, explains how attempts to censor the internet have affected her business.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026

Cue Mr. Carr, his wannabe censor at the FCC.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

“We’re trying to be as safe as possible but also censor as little as possible.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026

If there were no event horizon, no cosmic censor that shields the singularity from the rest of the universe, very strange things might happen.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

In the decades since, films challenging social norms or scrutinising institutions have more often faced resistance from the censors.

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026

After four months of restless waiting, filmmaker Kiwi Chow received a dreaded, but not altogether unexpected, message: Hong Kong censors had banned his new movie from reaching the big screen.

From Barron's ● Dec. 22, 2025

As a young man in Henan province, Guan Heng found a way to evade Chinese internet censors and access foreign news.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 14, 2025

Eliot, Gertrude Stein and others, most famously serializing James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” a decision that made her a target of censors and conservatives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025

I can’t tell you much about where I am—the censors turn most letters into Swiss cheese as it is—but I hope I can come back someday.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

The ads use implicit phrases and censored visuals in an attempt to avoid moderation, Patane found.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

“While data is imperfect and internet use remains heavily censored; we think the reports of restoration of connectivity implies the Iran regime expects a conclusion of the conflict is imminent,” Flight says.

From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026

Exiled Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli said on Wednesday that the government censored the publication of her latest novel in her home country because it is "afraid" to hear the truth.

From Barron's ● May 21, 2026

Satirists can be censored, silenced, imprisoned, attacked and cancelled.

From Salon ● May 19, 2026

The press had been censored, removed, restricted, rerouted.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

We are explicitly prohibited from censoring broadcasters, but this is censorship.

From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2026

Google famously exited the Chinese internet search market in 2010 after deciding it wasn’t comfortable censoring results to abide by the government’s censorship rules.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026

It has described how journalists are now censoring themselves and are fearful about what might happen to them.

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026

Bypassing censorship: Some jurisdictions are more restrictive than others, with many heavily censoring Internet access.

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2025

Ithepen of the Eynyen District, who has been curious about the Alien Mission since, while working for the Sarf, he was in charge of censoring the broadcasts we sent out from Erhenrang.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Related Words

• abridge
• black out
• blacklist
• delete
• edit
• excise
• restrict
• sanitize
• suppress
• withhold