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cen·sor (sĕnsər)
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n.
1. A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
2. An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security.
3. One that condemns or censures.
4. One of two officials in ancient Rome responsible for taking the public census and supervising public behavior and morals.
5. Psychology The component of the unconscious that is posited by psychoanalytic theory to be responsible for preventing certain thoughts or feelings from reaching the conscious mind.
tr.v. cen·sored, cen·sor·ing, cen·sors
To examine and expurgate.
[Latin cēnsor, Roman censor, from cēnsēre, to assess; see kens- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
censor·a·ble adj.
cen·sori·al (sĕn-sôrē-əl) adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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