edit

To edit something is to change it, usually in order to make it better or add necessary information. You often hear the word "edit" when there are changes to films, TV shows, newspaper articles, and almost anything that you can make by using a computer.

• The teacher helped Zooey edit something that she wrote for the school newspaper.
• Almost half of Sophia’s scenes were edited out of the final version of the movie.
• Dan needed to edit his speech down to ten minutes. Originally, it was much longer.
• To copy and paste something from your computer, go to the edit menu.
• Louis doesn’t know how to edit anything that comes out of his mouth. He just says what he thinks, and this often gets him into trouble.
• We had a chance to see an unedited version of the manuscript. (unedited = no changes)

A person who does the work of editing is called an editor.

He’s editing some video.

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This page was first published on July 27, 2012. It was updated on August 5, 2015.