red-penciling

verb

present participle of red-pencil
1
as in amending
to remove errors, defects, deficiencies, or deviations from the magazine claims that every article is red-penciled by a team of fact checkers before it ever sees the light of print

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in censoring
to remove objectionable parts from a television script that had been heavily red-penciled in abject surrender to political correctness

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for red-penciling
  1. amending
  2. censoring
  3. correcting
  4. shortening
  5. reforming
  6. rewriting
Verb
  • The city’s planning director said amending the zoning code to allow data centers in Sacramento would require multiple public hearings.
    — Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 17 Sep. 2026
  • The complex legislation — added by gutting and amending a bill known as Senate Bill 492 — was introduced less than three days before the legislative session was to end Monday.
    — Melody Petersen, Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of amending
Verb
  • Equal-time rule doesn’t apply, group says The equal-time rule prohibits broadcast stations from censoring or rejecting political ads paid for and sponsored by legally qualified candidates.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Earlier in the week, Kraft allegedly led a pressure campaign to force the Seattle rapper off Ed Sheeran’s The Loop Tour, igniting a firestorm of backlash from artists and fans accusing Kraft of censoring Macklemore’s free speech.
    — Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of censoring
Verb
  • Malissa Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs tribe, said the bill was a modest step toward correcting the exclusion of tribes from decisions.
    — Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The routine output juniors used to produce is what clears the gate, so what is left is checking, correcting and escalating what an agent produced.
    — Manu Khetan, Forbes.com, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of correcting
Verb
  • Some of them have had to ration fuel, while others enacted emergency measures like shortening the work or school week to reduce fuel use.
    — Greg Pollock, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Some changes appear cosmetic, such as shortening the news conference that occurs after meetings of the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee and changing the seating arrangements for reporters to be alphabetical by news organization.
    — Steve Liesman,Matt Peterson, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of shortening
Verb
  • The population consisted of workers transforming the strip of land to be habitable, even desirable, reforming the cluster into a model of hospitality.
    — Erin Parish, Miami Herald, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The decade-plus of legal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, criminal justice experts have said, offers insight into the difficulties of reforming law enforcement agencies charged with endemic racial bias.
    — Yana Kunichoff, ProPublica, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of reforming
Verb
  • And that means rewriting the rules for funding healthcare in low- and middle-income countries.
    — Fatma Tanis, NPR, 2 Oct. 2026
  • In the last few years, newspaper restaurant critics have been rewriting the rules of the game.
    — Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of rewriting
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

red-penciled
red-penciling
red-pencils
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Red-penciling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/red-penciling. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of discreet

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All