overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

censor.

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.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɛnsə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɛnsɚ/General-American
  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.

    Ancient-Rome · historical
    The Ancient Roman censors were part of the cursus honorum, a series of public offices held during a political career, like consuls and praetors.
  2. A high-ranking official who was responsible for the supervision of subordinate government officials.

    Ancient-China · historical
  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.

    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.
  4. A college or university official whose duties vary depending on the institution.

  5. One who censures or condemns.

    obsolete
  6. 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.
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈsɛnsə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɛnsɚ/General-American
  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).

    transitive
    The people responsible for censoring films have seen some startling things in their time.
    Occupying powers typically censor anything reeking of resistance
  2. To partially obscure an observation.

    transitive
    Early dropout is one cause of right-censoring.
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ˈsɛnsə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɛnsɚ/General-American
  1. A hypothetical subconscious agency which filters unacceptable thought before it reaches the conscious mind.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From an incorrect translation of German Zensur (“censorship”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

censor has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

censor studiocensor workshello, censor

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.