redact

UK/ɹɪˈdækt/US/ɹɪˈdækt/

verbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: redacted, redacting

To redact is to black out words in a document before releasing it. A redacted report, heavily redacted, redact the names.

Doing it properly means removing the text rather than drawing a black box over it, since a box in a document can often be moved or the text copied out from underneath. Redaction failures have exposed real secrets more than once.

Definitions of redact

1verbredactTo black out words in a document before releasing it.C1
“The government redacted the names of the witnesses before publishing the report.”

redact is a censoring.

Where it comes from

Latin redigere means to bring back or reduce, from re plus agere, to drive.

Latin
redactus
Old French
redacter
English, today
redact

Built from

redigō · Latin — drive, lead, collect, reduce
re- · Latin — back
agō · Latin — put in motion, drive

From Old French redacter, from Latin redactus, perfect passive participle of redigō (“drive, lead, collect, reduce”), from re- (“back”) + agō (“put in motion, drive”). react.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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