moderator

plural moderators · alternative obsolete moderatour

1. Someone who moderates.

   Angling was […] a moderator of passions.

   1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Instead of focusing on the stressors, as in most research on caregiving, it may be wise to focus on the likely moderators: coping, and social support between stressors and stress. It is often difficult to help an individual to solve his or her primary problem, whereas providing social support and improving coping ability is feasible.

   2024 December 16, Amanda M. Y. Chu, Damen H. Y. Woo, Agnes Tiwari, Helina Yuk, Mike K. P. So, “Which types of family caregivers are more prone to developing depression? Leveraging non-financial social support to mitigate depression”, in Current Psychology, →DOI

   1. An arbitrator or mediator.
   2. The chair or president of a meeting, etc.
   3. InternetA person who enforces the rules of a discussion forum by deleting posts, banning users, etc.

      1 more example

      The post was eventually removed by the subreddit’s moderators as potentially fake, but not before a screenshot of it went viral on Twitter and dozens of outlets circulated the story with headlines like “Girl Gets Sweet, Fiery Revenge on Ex With ‘Game of Thrones’ Spoilers.” […] Before r/relationships, Anne was a moderator in the similar but much more unruly r/relationship_advice, where she had to teach herself how to do the job.

      2019 October 23, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “How Reddit's R/Relationships Subreddit Is Moderated”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2019

      Synonyms: mod

2. The person who presides over a synod of a Presbyterian church.
3. nuclear physicsA substance (often water or graphite) used to decrease the speed of fast neutrons in a nuclear reactor and hence increase likelihood of fission.
4. A device used to deaden some of the noise from a firearm, although not to the same extent as a suppressor or silencer.
5. UKAn examiner at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

   One hall called Civil Law Hall or School, flouriſhed about this time (though in its buildings decayed) by the care of the learned and judicious Dr. Will. Warham Principal or Moderator thereof […]

   1792, Anthony à Wood, The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford: In Two Books, volume 1, Oxford: John Gutch, →OCLC, page 661

6. IrelandAt the University of Dublin, either the first (senior) or second (junior) in rank in an examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
7. UKSomeone who supervises and monitors the setting and marking of examinations by different people to ensure consistency of standards.
8. A mechanical arrangement for regulating motion in a machine, or producing equality of effect.
9. historicalA kind of lamp in which the flow of the oil to the wick is regulated.