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

• 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

In the Page Six article, Athletic executive editor Steven Ginsberg expressed full support for Russini and said the photos “are misleading and lack essential context.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

“Nexstar’s influence is much diminished from its heyday, thanks to audience fragmentation, so it does need to consolidate to have any kind of future on its own terms,” TVNewsCheck editor Michael Depp told me.

From Slate • Apr. 21, 2026

Previously, she was the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Yahoo News, and before that, the executive editor for news at Foreign Policy magazine.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026

Geraldine Weiss, the newsletter’s late founding editor, based her investment strategy on dividends because “a clever accountant can make earnings appear good or not so good, depending on the season or the objective,” she wrote.

From Barron's • Apr. 20, 2026

Castro asked if the editor was still on the line.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin