redact
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "redact", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "redact" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "redact" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
redact is aEnglishverb. It means: To censor, to black out or remove parts of a document while leaving the remainder. Pronounced /ɹɪˈdækt/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | redact |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈdækt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #93,071 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for redact is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈdækt/. Corpus data places it at rank #93,071 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for redact in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French redacter, from Latin redactus, perfect passive participle of redigō (“drive, lead, collect, reduce”), from re- (“back”) + agō (“put in motion, drive”). Piecewise doublet of react. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is redact, spelled R-E-D-A-C-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To censor, to black out or remove parts of a document while leaving the remainder.
- 2To black out legally protected sections of text in a document provided to opposing counsel, typically as part of the discovery process.
- 3To reduce to form, as literary matter; to digest and put in shape (matter for publication); to edit.
- 4To draw up or frame a decree, statement, etc.
- 5To bring together in one unit; to combine or bring together into one.
- 6To gather or organize works or ideas into a unified whole; to collect, order, or write in a written document or to put into a particular written form.
- 7To insert or assimilate into a written system or scheme.
- 8To bring an area of study within the comprehension capacity of a person.
- 9To reduce to a particular condition or state, especially one that is undesirable.
- 10To reduce something physical to a certain form, especially by destruction.
Etymology
From Old French redacter, from Latin redactus, perfect passive participle of redigō (“drive, lead, collect, reduce”), from re- (“back”) + agō (“put in motion, drive”). Piecewise doublet of react.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #93,071 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: