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Censorship: meaning, pronunciation and examples
Censorship noun. The cutting or banning of books, films, news or speech that an authority considers harmful or unacceptable.
How to say it
SEN-suh-ship/ˈsɛnsəʃɪp/
3 syllables, stressed on the first (SEN).
Censorship in a sentence
Under wartime censorship, letters home arrived with whole lines blacked out.
The festival screened films that had fallen foul of censorship in their own countries.
Similar and opposite
Similar:
- suppression
- banning
- gagging
Opposite:
- free speech
Where censorship comes from
From censor, the Roman magistrate who kept the census and watched over public morals.
Test yourself
Which word fills the gap?
The festival screened films that had fallen foul of _____ in their own countries.
- censorship
- suffrage
- cause célèbre
Show the answer
censorship: The festival screened films that had fallen foul of censorship in their own countries.