commentary

American  

[kom-uhn-ter-ee] / ˈkɒm ənˌtɛr i /

noun

• commentaries
  plural

1. a series of comments, explanations, or annotations.

   a commentary on the Bible; news followed by a commentary.

2. an explanatory essay or treatise.

   a commentary on a play; Blackstone's commentaries on law.

3. anything serving to illustrate a point, prompt a realization, or exemplify, especially in the case of something unfortunate.

   The dropout rate is a sad commentary on our school system.

4. Usually commentaries. records of facts or events.

   Commentaries written by Roman lawyers give us information on how their courts functioned.

---

commentary British  

/ ˈkɒməntərɪ, -trɪ /

noun

1. an explanatory series of notes or comments

2. a spoken accompaniment to a broadcast, film, etc, esp of a sporting event

3. an explanatory essay or treatise on a text

4. (usually plural) a personal record of events or facts

   the commentaries of Caesar

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• supercommentary
  noun
• commentarial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• commentaries
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of commentary

1375–1425; late Middle English commentaries (plural) < Latin commentārium notebook, noun use of neuter of commentārius, equivalent to comment ( um ) comment + -ārius -ary

---

Explanation

When the language in a work of literature such as "Beowulf" is difficult to understand, it is helpful to read from an edition that includes a commentary — an explanation or expansion or criticism added to the original material. Editorials go hand-in-hand with commentaries, since both express a writer's opinions. Commentary can be oral as well as written. Each year, following the President's State of the Union address, you can tune into the networks for commentary from respected news anchors. In fact, political commentary has become so pervasive in our media that some feel it has replaced reporting.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

commentary commentaries

This is such an interesting commentary on what is visible to justices and what isn’t.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

There will be live ball-by-ball commentary from every match of England's tour of Australia on Test Match Special.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

Avatar Musk, meant to appear like AI slop and spouting commentary culled from the totality of his recorded interviews, is pretty gimmicky.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

They add that expectations on this front are low in the near-term given management’s commentary at the first half-year earnings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Regiomontanus had recently completed an exposition and commentary on Ptolemy’s astronomy, begun by his mentor Georg Peuerbach.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Some commentaries noted it was less about substance than ceremony and symbolism, but what did it commemorate or symbolize?

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

I’ll let you in on another bit of digital journalism that always holds true: Questions explored in commentaries are either unanswerable or the answer is “no.”

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

If he doesn’t, markets won’t stop trying to guess what he’s thinking: they’ll just rely on other Fed officials’ commentaries, some random bit of data, the latest version of purple traffic cones.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

This has echoed across social media and commentaries over the past week, drawing even politicians into the conversation.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

But Danny didn’t know of any commentaries on Freud, so he had settled for the next best thing.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• comment
• criticism
• critique
• description
• explanation
• narration
• observation
• remark
• review
• treatise

---