censor

[sen-ser]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

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

/ 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

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of censor¹

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 ( tonsorial )

Word History and Origins

Origin of censor¹

C16: from Latin, from cēnsēre to consider, assess

Example Sentences

“Rather than this overt censoring of journalists, which was how the initial version appeared, it has morphed into this effort to intimidate both journalists and government employees as well.”

Read more on Salon

The Barbie movie from 2023 was banned in Vietnam and censored in the Philippines for showing a South China Sea map with the nine dash line.

Read more on BBC

“We want the National Assembly to be dissolved, and we will now censor all the governments that Emmanuel Macron might put forward.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Hall, who made a highly publicized departure from the NIH after charging the agency’s leadership with censoring his work, surely has insights he could have shared.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Google recently admitted that the Biden administration pressured the company to censor thousands of YouTube users for political speech.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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