editor
Americannoun
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editors
plural
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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.
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the supervisor or manager of a department of a newspaper, magazine, etc..
the sports editor of a newspaper.
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a person who edits, or selects and revises, material for publications, films, etc..
a video editor;
the editor of an online journal.
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a device for viewing, cutting, and editing film or magnetic tape to make movies, audio recordings, etc.
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Computers. a program used for writing and revising code, data, or text.
an XML editor.
noun
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a person who edits written material for publication
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a person in overall charge of the editing and often the policy of a newspaper or periodical
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a person in charge of one section of a newspaper or periodical
the sports editor
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films
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a person who makes a selection and arrangement of individual shots in order to construct the flowing sequence of images for a film
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a device for editing film, including a viewer and a splicer
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television radio a person in overall control of a programme that consists of various items, such as a news or magazine style programme
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a computer program that facilitates the deletion or insertion of data within information already stored in a computer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of editor
1640–50; < Medieval Latin, Late Latin: publisher; see 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.
Vocabulary lists containing editor
Academy Awards, List 6
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myPerspectives 7.3
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Journalism Jargon
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I was alternately excited and apprehensive to take part, and my editor would like me to note that I pitched this story on my own accord.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
For the Amicus bonus episode, Dahlia unpacks the election mayhem happening in Missouri with Madiba K. Dennie, deputy editor and senior contributor at Balls and Strikes.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Still, when Ben Ashwell, chair and editor for our CFO and Technology Councils, asked about chief simulations officers—which Park once predicted would become common at Fortune 500 companies—Mandadi wasn’t buying it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The BBC's North America editor Sarah Smith explains the two reasons that are keeping the US president from regulating AI.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
The Boston editor called Gene Roberts, his boss in New York, for guidance.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
Thanks for several chuckles — especially your response to the reader who questioned the existence of editors at the Times: “Thats a grate queston.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Follow along with WSJ reporters and editors for live updates and analysis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
After that, I sat down at my desktop computer and typed an email to my editors to let them know what happened to me and that I was OK.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Despite the fame - and infamy - that followed, she still found herself struggling to be taken seriously by editors.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Instead, correspondents filed their reports by voice or fax via satellite phone, and those reports were typed into computers for dissemination on the Web by editors in New York, Boston, and Seattle.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
