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

U.S. officials have previously accused the bloc of using the law to censor speech, an allegation the EU denies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

It was a strange sight in Los Angeles, seeing stadium workers asking attendees to discard flags in an effort to censor the expression of people here.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

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

I whispered the dreadful name before I could censor myself.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

He reposted most but they were often deleted by censors, who warned that his account could be closed.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

Some of its obfuscation tools, designed to bypass censors in restricted countries, have not performed well in highly restrictive environments like China and Russia.

From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2026

China's youth are facing an unemployment rate that sits at more than 15% and burning out from a gruelling work culture, yet sharing too much of their pessimism online could alert internet censors.

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 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

They must have known that censors would flag any such letters as suspicious.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

“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

All letters exchanged with Russian prisoners are read, and often censored, by the Russian authorities.

From BBC ● May 18, 2026

Davidson told Variety that he shouted other obscene language during the show that was all censored, and that he felt a “wave of shame” after the incident, removing himself from the ceremony.

From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026

It’s got to be censored all over the place.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Which brings us back to Carlson, who understands that major publishers aren’t a censoring force to be circumvented, which is why he has partnered with Skyhorse rather than trying to build something entirely from scratch.

From Salon ● Apr. 18, 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 comes after senior leaders at 70 universities attended a briefing with MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum to discuss what interference might look like, such as censoring research and intimidating staff.

From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2026

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

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2025

“Have you ever seen any of these ?” Major Major looked with a blank expression at copies of personal correspondence from the hospital on which the censoring officer had written “Washington Irving” or “Irving Washington.”

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Related Words

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