curator
noun
cu·ra·tor
ˈkyu̇r-ˌā-tər 
ˈkyər-;
kyu̇-ˈrā-;
ˈkyu̇r-ə-,
ˈkyər-
plural curators
: a person who oversees or manages a place (such as a museum or zoo) that offers exhibits
"My passion for animal care and collection management really drove me to become a curator."—
Scott Newland
Scott Newland
also
: a person at a museum, zoo, etc. who is in charge of a specific collection or subject area
the curator of manuscripts
Did you know?
In a good-sized art museum, each curator is generally responsible for a single department or collection: European painting, Asian sculpture, Native American art, and so on. Curatorial duties include acquiring new artworks, caring for and repairing objects already owned, discovering frauds and counterfeits, lending artworks to other museums, and mounting exhibitions of everything from Greek sculpture to 20th-century clothing.
Examples of curator in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The museum curator and the Air Force’s static display program coordinator helped guide the process, which was still long in coming.
—Peter Suciu, Forbes.com, 22 July 2025
Patrick O’Connor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, told AP this may be Denver’s deepest and oldest find yet.
—Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 11 July 2025
Ross is an artist, muralist and curator working out of 333 Midland Studios and the Annex Gallery in Highland Park since 2014.
—Duante Beddingfield, Freep.com, 10 July 2025
The traditional data analyst role will evolve into that of an insights curator—someone who doesn’t just run reports, but who also crafts stories from AI outputs, aligns findings with business context, and asks better questions to unlock competitive advantage.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for curator
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Peter Suciu, Forbes.com, 22 July 2025
Patrick O’Connor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, told AP this may be Denver’s deepest and oldest find yet.
—Ashley J. Dimella, FOXNews.com, 11 July 2025
Ross is an artist, muralist and curator working out of 333 Midland Studios and the Annex Gallery in Highland Park since 2014.
—Duante Beddingfield, Freep.com, 10 July 2025
The traditional data analyst role will evolve into that of an insights curator—someone who doesn’t just run reports, but who also crafts stories from AI outputs, aligns findings with business context, and asks better questions to unlock competitive advantage.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for curator
Cite this Entry
“Curator.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/curator. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
curator
noun
cu·ra·tor
ˈkyu̇(ə)r-ˌāt-ər
kyu̇-ˈrāt-
kyu̇-ˈrāt-
ˈkyu̇r-ət-
: a person in charge of a museum or zoo
Legal Definition
curator
noun
cu·ra·tor
ˈkyu̇r-ˌā-tər, kyu̇-ˈrā-tər
in the civil law of Louisiana
: a person appointed by a court to care for the property of an absent person or to care for the person or property of someone mentally incapable of doing so compare committee, conservator, guardian, interdict, tutor
curatorship
noun
Etymology
Latin, guardian, from curare to take care of
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