documentarian
Americannoun
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Movies, Television. a filmmaker, producer, etc., who specializes in documentaries.
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a writer, photographer, or other artist whose work constitutes a document or documentary of an aspect of life.
noun
Etymology
Origin of documentarian
First recorded in 1940–45; document(ary) + -arian
Explanation
A documentarian is a non-fiction filmmaker. Rather than using actors and scripts, documentarians tell stories of real people and factual events. Most documentarians make documentary films, though a few use other media, including audio recordings, to document true stories. Some nature documentarians spend months filming migratory birds or feral cats, while another documentarian might assemble home movie footage to make an autobiographical movie about her own family. The root of documentarian is document, from the Latin documentum, "proof."
Vocabulary lists containing documentarian
doc
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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.
A good documentarian assembles snippets and shards to create something that illuminates reality, whereas a good humorist distorts or reframes reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
With Lisa's team in crisis mode, documentarian Sue Kim followed Lisa into her dressing room.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The world's richest man, Musk has called the four-hour out-of-competition film from the respected Oscar-winning documentarian a "hit piece".
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
For a documentarian who specializes in personal movies, “Remake” feels especially revealing — both in terms of the glimpses we get of this father-son relationship and of unsolved mysteries that linger just outside the frame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
I had every intention of proving myself worthy of promotion to documentarian.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
