edit

Origin:
1785–95; 1915–20 for def 6; partly back formation from editor, partly < French éditer < Latin ēditus published (past participle of ēdere to give out), equivalent to ē- e-¹ + -ditus combining form of datus given; cf. datum

Related forms

mis·ed·it, verb (used with object)

o·ver·ed·it, verb

pre·ed·it, verb (used with object)

re·ed·it, verb (used with object)

un·ed·it·ed, adjective

well-ed·it·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged

edited.

edition.

editor.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To edit

Collins

World English Dictionary

edit (ˈɛdɪt)

—vb
1.	to prepare (text) for publication by checking and improving its accuracy, clarity, etc
2.	to be in charge of (a publication, esp a periodical): he edits the local newspaper
3.	to prepare (a film, tape, etc) by rearrangement, selection, or rejection of previously filmed or taped material
4.	(tr) to modify (a computer file) by, for example, deleting, inserting, moving, or copying text
5.	(often foll by out) to remove (incorrect or unwanted matter), as from a manuscript or film

—n
6.	informal an act of editing: give the book a final edit

[C18: back formation from editor]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

edit

see edition.

edit

1791, probably a back formation from editor. Related: Edited; editing.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

edit definition

application
Use of some kind of editor program to modify a document. Also used to refer to the modification itself, e.g. "my last edit only made things worse".
To edit something usually implies that the changes will persist for some time, usually by saving the edited document to a file, though one might open an editor, create a new document in memory, print it and exit without saving it to disk.
Editing is normally done by a human but see, e.g., sed.
(2007-07-11)

American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

edit.

edition
editor

Example sentences

Certainly it is easier to edit and rewrite papers electronically than with pencil and eraser.

Wikis are collaborative web pages that allow readers to edit and contribute.

Both movies are so eager to paint reporters as heroes that they edit history to do so.

They're still a little slow and the software that you use to create, organize, edit and finalize the ebooks is crude.

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Matching Quote

"I was born to be an editor, I always edit everything. I edit my room at least once a week. Hotels are made for me. I can change a hotel room so thoroughly that even its proprietor doesn't recognize it.... I edit people's clothes, dressing them infallibly in the right lines.... I change everyone's coiffure—except those that please me—and these I gaze at with such satisfaction that I become suspect, I edit people's tones of voice, their laughter, their words. I change their gestures, their photographs. I change the books I read, the music I hear ... It's this incessant, unavoidable observation, this need to distinguish and impose, that has made me an editor. I can't make things. I can only revise what has been made."

-Margaret Anderson