Definition of 'censor'

Word Frequency

censor

(sɛnsər )

Word forms: censors, censoring, censored

1. transitive 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.

2. transitive verb

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

The Late Show censored the band's live version of "Bullet in the Head."

3. 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.

4. countable noun

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

The movie had to be cut before the board of censors accepted it.

More Synonyms of censor

Video: pronunciation of
censor

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 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

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.