Definition of 'censor'

Word Frequency

censor

(sensəʳ )

Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular present tense censors , present participle censoring , past tense, past participle censored

1. verb

If someone in authority censors letters or the media, they officially examine them and cut out any information that is regarded as secret.

The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. [VERB noun]

2. countable noun

A censor is a person who has been officially appointed to examine letters or the media and to cut out any parts that are regarded as secret.

The report was cleared by the American military censors.

3. verb

If someone in authority censors a book, play, or film, they officially examine it and cut out any parts that are considered to be immoral or inappropriate.

She insisted that if anything were censored, the magazine would be published abroad. [VERB noun]

Certain TV companies tend to censor bad language in feature films. [VERB noun]

Synonyms: expurgate, cut, blue-pencil, bowdlerize More Synonyms of censor

4. countable noun

A censor is a person who has been officially appointed to examine plays, films, and books and to cut out any parts that are considered to be immoral.

...the British Board of Film Censors.

Video: pronunciation of
censor

censor in British English

(ˈsɛnsə )

noun

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

any person who controls or suppresses the behaviour of others, usually on moral grounds

(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. psychoanalysis

the postulated factor responsible for regulating the translation of ideas and desires from the unconscious to the conscious mind

censor in American English

(ˈsɛnsər )

noun

one of two magistrates in ancient Rome appointed to take the census and, later, to supervise public morals

an official with the power to examine publications, movies, television programs, etc. and to remove or prohibit anything considered obscene, libelous, politically objectionable, etc.

an official in time of war who reads publications, mail, etc. to remove information that might be useful to the enemy

in earlier psychoanalytic theory, and still popularly, a part of the unconscious that serves as the agent of censorship

verb transitive

to subject (a book, writer, etc.) to censorship

Derived forms

censorial (cenˈsorial) (sɛnˈsɔriəl )

adjective

Word origin

L < censere, to tax, value, judge < IE base *ens, speak solemnly, announce > Sans ṡáṁsa, praise, prayer of praise

Word Frequency

censor in American English

(ˈsensər)

noun

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

any person who supervises the manners or morality of others

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

transitive verb

to examine and act upon as a censor

to delete (a word or passage of text) in one's capacity as a censor

Derived forms

censorable

adjective

censorial (senˈsɔriəl, -ˈsour-) or censorian

adjective

Word origin

[1525–35; ‹ L cēnsor, equiv. to cēns(ēre) to give as one's opinion, recommend, assess + -tor -tor; -sor for *-stor by analogy with derivatives from dentals, as tōnsor barber ( see tonsorial)]

Examples of 'censor' in a sentence
censor

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They exchanged letters, but these were censored by the government.In a lurid incident shortly before his death, he ran into trouble with government censors.Should film censors get tougher with their ratings?BRITAIN'S film censor is suggesting that it could provide the first classifications for content of the internet.Letters back from the trenches were not so heavily censored.Nor did he censor his reporting in deference to the Palace.Many wrote scathing criticism of their superiors, only to see their reports censored and rewritten.Not surprisingly, government censors cut out whole scenes.The Government has censored the documents to hide the identity of individuals from mobile businesses. Government censors blocked Nobel prize reports from websites.