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

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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

For fear of his psychiatrist who was also their censor, they could never be sensual, or even emotional.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

It was an inconvenient truth Xi’s own remarks had left out, and it circulated widely online before censors moved to contain it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Lantern and other tools are constantly discovering new approaches or vulnerabilities, while censors such as Iran discover new ways to shut them down.

From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026

The Internet Freedom Foundation said the compressed timeline would transform platforms into "rapid fire censors".

From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026

They’re the ones who sound like out-of-touch censors trying to police popular culture.

From Salon ● Feb. 11, 2026

Army censors read the mail and listened to the phone calls.

From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin

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

Q: Why do you think your novel was censored?

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

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

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

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

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

As Salon has reported before, these things can appear extremely bright in the night sky, vexing astronomers and essentially censoring the stars.

From Salon ● Apr. 4, 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

But that doesn’t matter: The First Amendment generally prohibits the government from censoring even false or misleading speech, with no carve-out for opinionated comedians.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2025

“Chaplain,” he announced with magisterial rigidity, “we charge you formally with being Washington Irving and taking capricious and unlicensed liberties in censoring the letters of officers and enlisted men. Are you guilty or innocent?”

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Related Words

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