How to Use self-censorship in a Sentence

self-censorship

noun
  • There are two kinds of self-censorship.
    — Essie Assibu, Variety, 27 Nov. 2025
  • Because the worst thing in the world is self-censorship.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The fact is, many people with autism already engage in some form of self-censorship.
    — Aj Willingham, CNN, 4 Mar. 2024
  • But there is a fine line between discretion and self-censorship.
    — Julia Angwin, New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2025
  • The report found a high level of self-censorship among journalists due to threats or fear of reprisals by gangs.
    — Mitchell McCluskey, CNN, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Free speech and self-censorship drew equally sharp scrutiny.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Maybe at a subconscious level there’s a certain amount of self-censorship.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 13 Feb. 2026
  • This is the self-censorship some Harvard students complain of.
    — Harvey C. Mansfield, National Review, 2 June 2023
  • Even the perception of politicization will increase the risks of self-censorship.
    — Peter Schroeder, Foreign Affairs, 17 Jan. 2025
  • Bringing about such self-censorship is Michael Mann’s ultimate aim.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Still, self-censorship is the most devious concocter of self-deceit.
    — Literary Hub, 15 Jan. 2026
  • And on social media platforms, censorship extends to self-censorship, as users restrict their own speech out of fear of reprisal.
    — Majd Al-Waheidi, NPR, 18 Sep. 2024
  • One probable outcome is that creators will engage in self-censorship to ward off harrassment.
    — Brooke Erin Duffy, Forbes, 9 Jan. 2025
  • But historically, self-censorship and science denial don’t lead to good places.
    — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2025
  • But Carey said that’s not true elsewhere in academia where in a recent survey, more than half of faculty reported some form of self-censorship.
    — Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 6 May 2025
  • Gallese attributed the decline in studies of mirror neurons to collective fear and self-censorship.
    — Quanta Magazine, 2 Apr. 2024
  • The result of this will, surely, be creative self-censorship and a reluctance among the country’s best architects to bid for public work.
    — Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 12 June 2026
  • The film doesn’t just address the question of state surveillance but of the silent threat of self-censorship as the result of generations of state control.
    — Lise Pedersen, Variety, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Yet self-censorship started to creep into this group long before the Wagner mutiny, says Stepanenko.
    — WIRED, 29 June 2023
  • This need for validation often leads to self-censorship, preventing you from expressing your true thoughts and values.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025
  • To mollify the Russians, the Finns also practiced self-censorship on a sweeping scale.
    — Jussi M. Hanhimäki, Foreign Affairs, 22 May 2024
  • For me, as an artist, an educator and a dad, with that suppression leads to self-censorship, and leads to questions about one's self worth, about one's place in society.
    — Angele Latham, The Tennessean, 16 Aug. 2024
  • But bottom-up censorship—self-censorship—is more nefarious, more widespread, and more difficult to track.
    — Russell Jacoby, Harper’s Magazine , 16 Feb. 2023
  • This one involves self-censorship, fear of informants, and the necessity to appear conformist to some extent.
    — airmail.news, 12 Oct. 2024
  • This has created a culture of self-censorship in publishing, one in which even progressive authors are being silenced by public outcry on the left.
    — Kevin Dickinson, Big Think, 2 Sep. 2025
  • In an interview, Pinker said that her case, along with others, showed that Harvard had become rife with intolerance and self-censorship.
    — Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Chilling effects are thus not only repressive – causing self-censorship – but productive.
    — Bruce Schneier, The Conversation, 27 May 2026
  • In other words, will leaders feel a need to practice more self-censorship to refrain from saying anything that others could interpret as being offensive?
    — Liz Guthridge, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2024
  • Since May, many comics had revisited their scripts, tweaking their material in a timeworn ritual of self-censorship.
    — Chang Che, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2024
  • But others told me that an atmosphere of self-censorship and anxiety about unwritten restrictions, had become routine in the industry.
    — Taran Khan, The Dial, 24 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-censorship.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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