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censor

Pronunciation: /ˈsɛnsə/

The English word “censor” has 9 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials.
  3. 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.
  4. A college or university official whose duties vary depending on the institution.
  5. One who censures or condemns.
  6. An algorithm that approves or rejects something on grounds of taste or morality etc.
  7. A hypothetical subconscious agency which filters unacceptable thought before it reaches the conscious mind.

verb

  1. 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).
  2. To partially obscure an observation.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.