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# censure

«censure» in Mova's school dictionary: **strong, official criticism or disapproval** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (censure, uncountable; a censure); verb (censure, censures, censured, censuring)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) Censure is strong, official criticism or disapproval. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#m1)

2) (formal) To censure someone is to criticise them strongly and officially, especially for something they did wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#m2)

3) A vote of censure is when a parliament or group officially says it disapproves of a leader or member. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In politics and law lessons censure is a formal punishment, for example when a parliament or the US Congress censures a member who has broken rules. In exam texts it is the stiff, formal word for «telling off». Phrases: vote of censure, face censure, public censure.

### examples

- (formal) The council faced public censure for closing the library. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x1)
- Parliament voted to censure the minister. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x2)
- The referee was censured for unfair decisions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x3)
- The report censured the company for polluting the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x4)
- Cheating at the competition brought censure from the judges. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x5)
- The senator was formally censured by Congress. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x6)
- (formal) The headteacher's censure was severe but fair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x7)
- If he is a true genius, he can bear the sharp voice of censure. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/#x8)

### note

Formal word; in everyday talk say «criticise» or «tell off». Trap: censure (to criticise) is NOT the same as censor (to remove or ban parts of books, films or news), though they sound alike.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «censure» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/censure/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.