redaction

noun

re·​dac·​tion ri-ˈdak-shən 

1

: an act or instance of redacting something

2

: a work that has been redacted : edition, version

redactional

ri-ˈdak-sh(ə-)nəl 

adjective

Did you know?

Here's a quiz for all you etymology buffs. Can you pick the words from the following list that come from the same Latin root?

A. redaction B. prodigal C. agent D. essay
E. navigate F. ambiguous

If you guessed all of them, you are right. Now, for bonus points, name the Latin root that they all have in common. If you knew that it is the verb agere, meaning to "to drive, lead, act, or do," you get an A+. Redaction is from the Latin verb redigere ("to bring back" or "to reduce"), which was formed by adding the prefix red- (meaning "back") to agere. Some other agere offspring include act, agenda, cogent, litigate, chasten, agile, and transact.

Examples of redaction in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

During Thursday's hearing, an attorney for Kirk's family, including his widow, Erica Kirk, made an impassioned plea to Graf to allow prosecutors to play the full video in open court without redactions. — Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 9 July 2026

Also, make sure every redaction event is logged for compliance audit and that no sensitive data ever hits the third-party server. — Phil Portman, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026

Even the redactions were haphazard, with some names still visible. — Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 30 June 2026

The foundation’s legal push centers on the idea that the recordings are part of the record reviewed during the special counsel probe into Biden’s handling of classified information, and therefore subject to disclosure with appropriate redactions. — Anthony Thompson, USA Today, 20 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

French rédaction, from Late Latin redaction-, redactio act of reducing, compressing, from Latin redigere to bring back, reduce, from re-, red- re- + agere to lead — more at agent

First Known Use

1785, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for redaction

• abstraction
• attraction
• compaction
• contraction
• detraction
• diffraction
• distraction
• exaction
• extraction
• impaction
• inaction
• infraction

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