edit
Noun pluraledits
Pluraledits
- 1
- 2A single alteration, such as an addition, deletion, or correction, made to the wording of a document.
She suggested a single edit to the opening line.
Several edits improved the clarity of the document.
Similarrevision, change, correction, amendment, alteration
Note
Behind every sense of the word lies a back-formation: edit was formed from editor, with French éditer ("edit, publish") and Latin editus shaping it. The noun is fully countable, as in a single edit or several edits, so a reviser's work can be tallied change by change. Suggest an edit comes as naturally as make one.
- 3To change the contents of a file, website, or similar digital item.
Users can edit the document in real time and see each other's changes.
She edited the configuration file to fix the server error.
Similarmodify, change, alter, update
Note
Software makes this the everyday version of the verb: open the contents, change them, save. Wikipedia gave it a public face by describing itself as an encyclopedia that allows anybody to edit and improve articles, which sets edit beside improve. Each change made this way is counted as an edit.
- 4A change made to the text of a file, a website, or software code.
Each edit to the file is saved with a timestamp.
The developer's edits broke the build.
Similarchange, modification, revision
Note
Computing turns the edit into a unit of record. On a wiki each change is credited to whoever made it, so contributors speak of having made thousands of edits, and software that tracks changes lets any one of them be reviewed or undone. The usual verb is make: make an edit, made 5,780 edits. The action itself is changing a file or site.
- 5To alter a photograph or a sound or video recording.
Photographers often edit their images to adjust color and lighting.
He edited the audio track to cut out background noise.
Similarretouch, alter, adjust, modify
Note
With recordings the verb often takes down, meaning to cut something to a shorter length: an hour-long interview edited down to 45 minutes. The particle signals reduction. Without it, edit can mean any alteration, from trimming background noise to adjusting color. Its filmmaking relative is assembling footage into a film.
- 6To assemble a film by cutting and joining pieces of raw footage into a finished sequence.
Good cutters edit each scene to keep the story moving.
He edited the feature in just three months.
Note
In filmmaking the verb names the whole assembly of a picture, not a touch-up. Mekado Murphy's 2014 New York Times piece on editing Boyhood, which was shot over twelve years, describes a decision to edit the film progressively, cutting the scenes from each year in turn. The result of the work is an edit of the film.
- 7A piece of media, especially video footage, put together from changed or selected material.
His edit of the trailer went viral overnight.
The channel posts new edits every week.
Note
Here the edit is a version, not a single change. A film can pass through several, and an early edit may hold material the final one drops, such as a romantic subplot. It is the product of assembling raw footage, so one speaks of an edit of the film rather than an edit to it.
- 8To serve as the editor of a publication.
Veteran journalists often edit several publications over their careers.
She edited the literary magazine until her retirement.
Similarrun, head, manage, direct
Note
The object here is a whole publication, not a passage. He edits the Chronicle means he runs it and shapes its contents, not that he is rewriting it. In L. Frank Baum's Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation (1912), Patsy plans to buy a press, hire a printer and edit the paper with Beth and Louise. This use stays closest to editor, the noun the verb was formed from.
- 9A compilation of memorable moments from a show or sporting event, often with stylized visual effects and dramatic music.
The fan's edit set the player's best plays to a pounding soundtrack.
Slick edits of the finale flooded social media.
Similarmontage, compilation
Note
An internet genre with its own look: a highlight reel cut fast, laid over intense music and dressed in stylized camera effects. It is named by its subject, as in a basketball edit or a Thor edit, and the meme "bro thinks he's in an edit" mocks anyone acting as if scored for one. Carver Fisher's 2023 piece quotes Tarik complaining that Valorant edits on TikTok get "over-edited."
- 10A selected range of products grouped together by a shared theme or purpose.
The brand released a capsule edit of sustainable basics.
Seasonal edits feature a tight selection of key pieces.
Similarselection, collection, range
Note
Retail and fashion writing use the word for a curated assortment, a deliberate selection rather than a full catalog. It usually carries a season or a name in front of it, as in a high-summer edit, the ultimate summer edit or a Tu edit. Brands and celebrities are said to release or announce one, much as they would a collection.
- 11To respond to editing in a particular way; to be more or less suited to being edited.
Raw footage shot in good light tends to edit smoothly.
The manuscript edited well, needing only minor cuts.
Note
A verb that hands the action to the material: clips edit together, footage edits smoothly, a manuscript edits well. The subject is the thing being edited, and an adverb or particle usually completes the verb, as with reads well. Gary Hudson and Sarah Rowlands's The Broadcast Journalism Handbook (2018) advises remembering how the clips will edit together.
- 12To deliberately change the DNA sequence of a chromosome, as by gene splicing.
Scientists can edit specific genes to correct inherited diseases.
The lab edited the embryo's DNA to remove a harmful mutation.
Similarmodify, alter, engineer
Note
In the lab the verb takes genomes and genes as its object, so researchers edit a genome or edit specific genes. Beth Shapiro, writing in The Guardian in 2015 about reviving the woolly mammoth, noted that the technology could make only a limited number of changes at once. She suggested this was probably why the Harvard team focused on just 14 genes.
- 13A deliberate change made to the DNA sequence of a chromosome, or an act of gene splicing that makes one.
Each edit to the genome must be checked for unintended effects.
The edits introduced by the team were stable across generations.
Similarmodification, alteration, change
Note
Genetics borrowed the editor's metaphor. A chromosome's DNA is treated as a text, and each change to its sequence, whether an insertion, a deletion or a substitution, counts as one edit. The noun stays countable, so researchers speak of edits to a genome and check them one at a time. The work of making them is the verb's genetic sense.
- 14An interruption or change made to an improvised scene during a performance.
A well-timed edit can rescue a scene that has stalled.
The team used sharp edits to jump between storylines.
Similarcut
Note
Improvisers use the word for the move that ends or redirects a running scene. A player waiting at the side runs across the front of the stage, someone is tapped out, or the lights drop, and the show moves on to something new. The edit is a deliberate choice, called by a performer or a director, so improv teaching treats it as a skill rather than a failure.
- 15To end an improvised scene early or alter it in some other way while it is being played.
Experienced improvisers edit a scene the moment it peaks.
When the argument onstage started going in circles, a teammate swept across the front of the stage to edit the scene.
Note
The timing is the craft. Matt Fotis and Siobhan O'Hara's The Comedy Improv Handbook (2015) offers a rule of thumb: edit a scene before you think, "Gosh, somebody should edit this scene." Performers aim to cut on a strong laugh or a clear peak, while the energy is still high. The object is always the scene, and the ways of cutting it belong to the noun for the interruption.
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Origin
A back-formation from "editor," influenced by French "éditer" ("edit, publish") and Latin "editus."