documentary
Americanadjective
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Also documental pertaining to, consisting of, or derived from documents.
a documentary history of France.
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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.
noun
plural
documentariesadjective
-
Also: documental. consisting of, derived from, or relating to documents
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presenting factual material with little or no fictional additions
the book gives a documentary account of the war
noun
Other Word Forms
- documentarily adverb
- nondocumental adjective
- nondocumentary adjective
- predocumentary adjective
- semidocumentary adjective
- undocumentary adjective
Etymology
Origin of documentary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In 2019, Chow was near the end of the production cycle of a romantic drama film, but he also shot extensive footage of the protests that would become the documentary "Revolution of Our Times".
From Barron's
He was "excited", China "was going to be changed, like a Western country", he said in the 2007 documentary.
From BBC
Agena narrated the audiobook for “Meet Me at Luke’s,” a guide that draws life lessons from the series, and is featured in the upcoming “Gilmore Girls” documentary “Drink Coffee, Talk Fast.”
From Los Angeles Times
Narrator Jodie Foster widens the film’s aperture a bit early on, referring to the period “between Watergate and the Bicentennial” as the documentary’s focus.
Ben Hania’s last film was another bold meshing of the factual and the fictionalized, the hybridized Oscar-nominated documentary “Four Daughters,” in which a real Tunisian family processes personal tragedy through role-playing for the director’s camera.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
