censorship

[sen-ser-ship]

noun

1. the act or practice of censoring.

2. the office or power of a censor.

3. the time during which a censor holds office.

4. the inhibiting and distorting activity of the Freudian censor.

censorship

/ ˈsɛnsəˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a policy or programme of censoring

2. the act or system of censoring

3. psychoanal the activity of the mind in regulating impulses, etc, from the unconscious so that they are modified before reaching the conscious mind

Other Word Forms

• anticensorship adjective
• precensorship noun
• procensorship adjective
• self-censorship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of censorship¹

First recorded in 1585–95; censor + -ship

Example Sentences

But alongside its economic growth, the country has high levels of political censorship and a poor record on human rights.

Read more on BBC

Socialists, anarchists, pacifists and other perceived radicals were also under tremendous stress from the aforementioned government campaign of persecution and censorship, including the infamous Espionage Act.

Read more on Salon

Critics and First Amendment advocates had railed against ABC's decision as censorship and a violation of free speech.

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Dangerous—because Lee, a commentator on life in America since his first feature in 1986, doesn’t quite know what to say about this moment of political violence and censorship.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Still, it was easier to make a film like “The White Balloon” than something more explicitly political since censorship was less strictly enforced on films with stories about children.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• ban 
• blackout 
• restriction 
• suppression