Word
redacted
Phoneticsredact·ed
US/ɹɪˈdæktɪd/
UK/ɹɪdˈæktɪd/
Definition
adj. describes a document where private or secret information has been covered up or removed before it is shared. You see this when names or dates are blacked out for safety.
adj. having sensitive or confidential information removed or obscured from a text before publication. Often used as a participial adjective to describe legal or government documents.
Examples
“The government released a redacted version of the report.”
“To protect the witness's identity, the police provided the lawyers with a redacted transcript of the interview.”
“The heavily redacted files contained so many blacked-out passages that the investigative journalists found it nearly impossible to reconstruct the timeline of the scandal.”
Examples
simple
“The government released a redacted version of the report.”
contextual
“To protect the witness's identity, the police provided the lawyers with a redacted transcript of the interview.”
complex
“The heavily redacted files contained so many blacked-out passages that the investigative journalists found it nearly impossible to reconstruct the timeline of the scandal.”
Usage
Often follows a linking verb or precedes a noun like 'report', 'document', or 'file'.
Real-World Examples
“Some critics have pointed out that certain records published by the Justice Department appear unnecessarily redacted, while others reveal the identities of victims.” “He then listed the medication, though that portion of the footage was redacted.”