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censor

Syllabification: (cen·sor)
Pronunciation: /ˈsensər/
Translate censor | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of censor

noun

  • 1an official who examines material that is about to be released, such as books, movies, news, and art, and suppresses any parts that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.
  • Psychoanalysis an aspect of the superego that is said to prevent certain ideas and memories from emerging into consciousness.
    [from a mistranslation of German Zensur 'censorship', coined by Freud]
  • 2(in ancient Rome) either of two magistrates who held censuses and supervised public morals.

verb

[with object]
  • examine (a book, movie, etc.) officially and suppress unacceptable parts of it:my mail was being censored

Derivatives

censorial

Pronunciation: /senˈsôrēəl/
adjective

Origin:

mid 16th century (sense 2 of the noun): from Latin, from censere 'assess'

Both censor and censure are used as both verbs and nouns, but censor means ‘scrutinize, revise, or cut unacceptable parts from (a book, movie, etc.)’ or ‘a person who does this,’ while censure means ‘criticize harshly’ or ‘harsh criticism’: the inmates received their mail only after prison officials had censored all the contents; some senators considered a resolution of censure to express strong disapproval of the president’s behavior.

censor in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of censor in the British & World English dictionary
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