editor

American  

[ed-i-ter] / ˈɛd ɪ tər /

noun

1. a person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility related to the writing, compilation, and revision of content for a publishing firm or for a newspaper, magazine, or other publication.

   She was offered a managing editor position at a small press.

2. the supervisor or manager of a department of a newspaper, magazine, etc..

   the sports editor of a newspaper.

3. a person who edits, or selects and revises, material for publications, films, etc..

   a video editor;

   the editor of an online journal.

4. a device for viewing, cutting, and editing film or magnetic tape to make movies, audio recordings, etc.

5. Computers. a program used for writing and revising code, data, or text.

   an XML editor.

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editor British  

/ ˈɛdɪtə /

noun

1. a person who edits written material for publication

2. a person in overall charge of the editing and often the policy of a newspaper or periodical

3. a person in charge of one section of a newspaper or periodical

   the sports editor

4. films

   1. a person who makes a selection and arrangement of individual shots in order to construct the flowing sequence of images for a film

   2. a device for editing film, including a viewer and a splicer

5. television radio a person in overall control of a programme that consists of various items, such as a news or magazine style programme

6. a computer program that facilitates the deletion or insertion of data within information already stored in a computer

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Other Word Forms

• editorship noun

Etymology

Origin of editor

1640–50; < Medieval Latin, Late Latin: publisher; edit, -tor

Explanation

Newspaper editors don't write the stories, but they come up with the story ideas, assign them to writers, read all of the drafts, and correct and change them to make them ready to be published. You can be an editor without working at a newspaper. Magazines and books are all worked on by editors. There are photo editors and film editors, who splice together the footage and determine a movie's pacing. Even if you just correct your friend's spelling mistakes, you're editing her work.

Example Sentences

Khong’s editor, John Freeman, places her alongside West Coast peers like Charles Yu and Vauhini Vara, noting her sensitivity to the “slippages and quick-silvery nature of technology and speculation.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

England were "feckless, reckless and legless" on their dismal Ashes tour of Australia, according to the editor of the prestigious Wisden Almanack.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

Robert previously worked as a business editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris, a roaming Latin American correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires in Miami and a reporter for Bloomberg News in Milan.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 12, 2026

The fallout escalated when Raina's editor was arrested, prompting him to take down the entire series.

From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026

She told no one, but concocted a ‘thrilling tale’, and boldly carried it herself to Mr. Dashwood, editor of the Weekly Volcano.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott