documentary

American  

[dok-yuh-men-tuh-ree, -tree] / ˌdɒk jəˈmɛn tə ri, -tri /

adjective

1. Also documental pertaining to, consisting of, or derived from documents.

   a documentary history of France.

2. Movies, Television. based on or re-creating an actual event, era, life story, etc., that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements.

   a documentary life of Gandhi.

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noun

• documentaries
  plural

1. Movies, Television. a documentary film, radio or television program, etc.

documentary British  

/ ˌdɒkjʊˈmɛntərɪ, -trɪ /

adjective

1. Also: documental.  consisting of, derived from, or relating to documents

2. presenting factual material with little or no fictional additions

   the book gives a documentary account of the war

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noun

1. a factual film or television programme about an event, person, etc, presenting the facts with little or no fiction

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nondocumental
  adjective
• nondocumentary
  adjective
• predocumentary
  adjective
• semidocumentary
  adjective
• undocumentary
  adjective
• documentarily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• documentaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of documentary

First recorded in 1795–1805; document + -ary

Explanation

A documentary is a film or video examining an event or person based on facts. The word can also refer to anything involving documents. The idea of documentary as meaning "pertaining to documents" came about at the beginning of the 19th century. Later, it came to mean a factual record of something. On PBS, you'll see lots of documentaries, about everything from baseball to war. Those documentaries are nonfiction films — they're showing true life. However, lots of fictional shows are filmed in a realistic documentary style. If you make a documentary about the U.S. Library of Congress, you'll be documenting lots of historical documents.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

documentary documentaries

On a street in southern Israel, a graffiti artist paints a mural depicting the filmmakers behind the award-winning documentary "NAZA".

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

He’d already begun to work on a podcast and possible documentary about the case when he asked me, an old acquaintance, to partner with him.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

Veteran broadcaster John Humphrys has said the people of the United Kingdom should "be able to choose our leaders" as he releases a documentary exploring the role of the Royal Family.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

This is not to say there’s skulduggery afoot, just a massive hole in an otherwise clear-eyed and affecting documentary.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

The documentary showed a sign over the door in the death chamber, which the rabbi had passed under many times.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Michele was a well-regarded photographer who also produced documentaries and podcasts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

But his recapitulations of Vyvyan’s battles with the taxman, of bygone court cases and of late-20th-century documentaries and biopics could have been done at half the length.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Selected by a special panel of filmmakers and critics, the films on this list span over 100 years of cinema and include comedies, horror flicks, dramas, documentaries, and beyond.

From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026

"I have a 5-year-old daughter who watches his documentaries every morning. She feels utterly loved by her 'grandpa crocodile' without ever having met him."

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Later, we were permitted to select documentaries — a form that I preferred — and I began to skip the conventional films.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

• broadcast
• feature
• film
• narrative