expurgation
Removing offensive content
Expurgation is the act of removing objectionable or offensive material from a text—cutting passages deemed obscene, politically dangerous, or otherwise unsuitable.
Publishers have released expurgated editions of everything from Shakespeare to the Bible: The expurgation of the novel removed all references to sexuality.
The practice suggests censorship or prudishness, though it sometimes serves legitimate purposes like adapting adult works for children.
Remove objectionable content
- bowdlerizationSanitizing offensive literary content
- censorOne who suppresses content
- blue-pencilDelete or censor text
- redactConceal text for secrecy
suppress · ban · proscribe · forbidden · taboo · obscenity · blacklist · prohibition
bowdlerize
Remove objectionable content
- bowdlerizationSanitizing offensive literary content
- censorOne who suppresses content
- blue-pencilDelete or censor text
redact · suppress · ban · proscribe · forbidden · taboo · obscenity · blacklist · prohibition · expunge
edit
Modify written material
excise · delete · remove · cut · omit · abridge · shorten · condense · sanitize · clean up
cleanse
Remove dirt or sin
- sanitizeCleanse of pathogens
- decontaminateRemove harmful substances
- refineRemove impurities from
clarify · filter · distill · cleansing · catharsis · lustration · ablution
- censorshipbanned books, censored, banned, book banning, book bans
- omissionsomission, exclusion, deletion, gap, lack
- deletiondelete, erase, erasure, cross out, strike out
- summariessummary, synopsis, summaries, abstract, abstracts
- desexualizationneutering, spaying, castration, sterilization, gonadectomy
expurgationinsertion
Placing something within
addition · interpolation · inclusion · augmentation · elaboration
expurgationpreservation
Maintaining something's condition
retention · uncensoring · conservation · maintenance · reinstatement
expurgationcorruption
Dishonest abuse of power
defilement · dirtying · contamination · pollution · degradation
purify, purge, purging, purification, purgatory, expurgate, purged, purges, purgative