editor

American  

[ed-i-ter] / ˈɛd ɪ tər /

noun

• editors
  plural

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

Derived Forms

• editorship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• editors
  plural

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

See Examples For:

editor editors

Struck by her talent, Pollan introduced her to his book agent and editor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Argos could also do better on customer service, thinks Hugh Radojev, editor of Retail Week.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Atul Chaurasia, managing editor of the Newslaundry digital platform, argued that traditional newsrooms relied on a "flawed financial model" that depended heavily on advertising revenue from the government.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

Ground yourself with some compassion: Slate senior editor Tony Ho Tran takes a spin as Prudie and dishes out some exceptionally heartfelt advice.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

Philip Caputo, the marine-turned-journalist, was home when his editor at the Chicago Tribune called.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

Two Pakistani journalists told the BBC that they had been warned to stay away from the topic by their editors.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

The Vance press team contacted my editors to demand corrections.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The goal is to help editors identify potentially fabricated manuscripts before they are sent to outside experts for peer review.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026

By implication, that means the editors of these newsletters believe that inflation will remain elevated for some time.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026

The belief that this is wrong is a widespread misconception concocted by nineteenth- century newspaper editors.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner