censor
Syllables: cens·orUK/ˈsɛnsə//ˈsɛnsɚ/
censor noun: one of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour and morality.
Noun (1)
censor (plural censors)
- One of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour and morality.
- The Ancient Roman censors were part of the cursus honorum, a series of public offices held during a political career, like consuls and praetors.
- And Nobly nam'd, ſo twice being Cenſor, / Was his great Anceſtor.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials.
- An official responsible for the removal or suppression of objectionable material (for example, if obscene or likely to incite violence) or sensitive content in books, films, correspondence, and other media.
- The headmaster was an even stricter censor of his boarding pupils’ correspondence than the enemy censors had been of his own when the country was occupied.
- There being a censor of public morals I will refrain from giving that worthy warrior's reply when he had digested this astounding piece of information; it is sufficient to say that it did not encourage further conversation, nor did it soothe our hero's nerves.1917, Sapper [pseudonym; Herman Cyril McNeile], “The Seed”, in No Man’s Land, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, part 3 (Seed Time), page 260
- Synonyms:
- censurer
- A college or university official whose duties vary depending on the institution.
- During his [Theophilus Higgons's] reſidence in the ſaid houſe [Christ Church, Oxford], he was eſteemed a Perſon to be much ſtained with Puritaniſme, and to be violent againſt all ſuch that were ſuſpected to favour the Romiſh See. When he was Cenſor alſo, he was ſo zealous as to ſaw down a harmleſs...1691, [Anthony Wood], “THEOPHILUS HIGGONS”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from...
- One who censures or condemns.
- Why that character [of the English Revolution] was so peculiar is sufficiently obvious, and yet seems not to have been always understood either by eulogists or by censors.1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter X, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 661
- Synonyms:
- censurer
- An algorithm that approves or rejects something on grounds of taste or morality etc.
- I tried using a dirty word as my user name for the online game, but the censor rejected it.
Verb
censor (third-person singular simple present censors, present participle censoring, simple past and past participle censored)
- To review for, and if necessary to remove or suppress, content from books, films, correspondence, and other media which is regarded as objectionable (for example, obscene, likely to incite violence, or sensitive).
- The people responsible for censoring films have seen some startling things in their time.
- Occupying powers typically censor anything reeking of resistance
- Synonyms:
- bowdlerize, expurgate, expunge, redact
- Antonyms:
- decensor
- To partially obscure an observation.
- Early dropout is one cause of right-censoring.
Noun (2)
censor (plural censors)
- A hypothetical subconscious agency which filters unacceptable thought before it reaches the conscious mind.
censor meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
censor in Tamil
- தணிக்கை செய், சீரமை, தணிக்கையாளர், சீர்மையர், சீர்காணி, பகுத்தடக்கி
censor in Marathi
- सेन्सॉर करणे
censor in Urdu
- محتسب
censor in Bengali
- সেন্সর করা
More languagesFewer languages
- censor in Telugu
- సెన్సార్ చెయ్యడానికి
- censor in Malayalam
- സെൻസർ, ശോധകൻ, ഉൽപവിതാവ്, ശുദ്ധികർമ്മം നടത്തുന്നവൻ
- censor in Kannada
- ಪರೀಕ್ಷಣಾಧಿಕಾರಿ, ಪೂರ್ವಪರಾಮರ್ಶನಾಧಿಕಾರಿ, ಪರಾಮರ್ಶಕ
- censor in Gujarati
- સેન્સર કરવા
- censor in Nepali
- सेन्सोर, सेन्सर गर्न
- censor in Indonesian
- menyensor
- censor in Thai
- เซ็นเซอร์ sen-sə̂ə
- censor in Vietnamese
- kiểm duyệt
- censor in Myanmar
- ဆင်ဆာ hcanghca
Examples of censor in a sentence
- The conqueror of Rome and her provinces aſſumed the popular and legal form of a cenſor, a conſul, and a tribune.1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter XLIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume V, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and...
- The Censors were always two in number, and were originally chosen from the Patricians exclusively.1876, William Ramsay, “Magistrates of the Regal and Republican Periods and under the Early Emperors”, in A Manual of Roman Antiquities...
- When he was Cenſor alſo, he was ſo zealous as to ſaw down a harmleſs maypole ſtanding within the precincts of the ſaid houſe, becauſe forſooth he thought it came out of a Romiſh Foreſt.1691, [Anthony Wood], “THEOPHILUS HIGGONS”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their...
- He insists on censoring anything that might betray him.1909, Arthur Stringer, “The Movement in Retreat”, in The Gun-runner, New York, N.Y.: B. W. Dodge & Company, →OCLC, page 134:
Synonyms of censor
Antonyms
Forms of censor
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | censors |
| alternative form | censour |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | censors |
| present participle | censoring |
| past participle | censored |
| past | censored |
Origin of censor
The noun is borrowed from Latin cēnsor (“magistrate; critic”), from cēnseō (“to give an opinion, judge; to assess, reckon; to decree, determine”) + -sor (variant of -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to announce, proclaim; to put in order”). The English word is cognate with Late Middle English sensour, Proto-Iranian *cánhati (“to declare; to explain”), Sanskrit शंसति (śaṃsati, “to declare”). The verb is derived from the noun.
From an incorrect translation of German Zensur (“censorship”).
Words formed from censor
Words that rhyme with censor
- spencer
- condenser
- tensor
- fencer
- censer
- hypertensor
- eigentensor
- extensor
- flenser
- pseudotensor
- senser
- sensor
4 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about censor
- What does censor mean?
- Censor means one of the two magistrates who originally administered the census of citizens, and by Classical times (between the 8th century B.C.E. and the 6th century C.E.) was a high judge of public behaviour and morality.
- What is censor in Tamil?
- Censor in Tamil is தணிக்கை செய், சீரமை, தணிக்கையாளர். See Censor meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use censor in a sentence?
- The conqueror of Rome and her provinces aſſumed the popular and legal form of a cenſor, a conſul, and a tribune.
- What part of speech is censor?
- Censor can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce censor?
- Censor is pronounced /ˈsɛnsə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of censor?
- The plural of censor is censors.
Words near censor in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: censor (page history and authors); censor (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); censor (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); censor (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); censor (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); censor (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); censor (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); censor (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); censor (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); censor (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “censor.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/censor. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.