document

American  

[dok-yuh-muhnt, dok-yuh-ment] / ˈdɒk jə mənt, ˈdɒk jəˌmɛnt /

noun

• documents
  plural

1. a written or printed paper furnishing information or evidence, as a passport, deed, bill of sale, or bill of lading; a legal or official paper.

   You'll need documents from your employers and your bank to prepare your income tax return.

2. any written item, as a book, article, or letter, especially of a factual or informative nature.

   The leaked document proves that the management team knew about the safety issues before the product launch.

3. Digital Technology. a computer data file, especially one with formatted text.

   Luckily, I saved my document right before the power went out.

4. Archaic. evidence; proof.

---

verb (used with object)

• documents,
  present (3rd person singular)
• documented,
  past participle,  past
• documenting
  present participle

1. to furnish with documents.

2. to furnish with references, citations, etc., in support of statements made.

   a carefully documented biography.

   Synonyms:

   validate, substantiate, verify, corroborate

3. to support by documentary evidence.

   to document a case.

4. Nautical. to provide (a vessel) with a certificate giving particulars concerning nationality, ownership, tonnage, dimensions, etc.

5. Obsolete. to instruct.

document British  

noun

1. a piece of paper, booklet, etc, providing information, esp of an official or legal nature

2. a piece of text or text and graphics stored in a computer as a file for manipulation by document processing software

3. archaic evidence; proof

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verb

1. to record or report in detail, as in the press, on television, etc

   the trial was well documented by the media

2. to support (statements in a book) with citations, references, etc

3. to support (a claim, etc) with evidence or proof

4. to furnish (a vessel) with official documents specifying its ownership, registration, weight, dimensions, and function

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• documenter
  noun
• redocument
  verb (used with object)
• documentable
  adjective
• nondocumented
  adjective
• well-documented
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• documents
  plural

Participles

• documenting
  present
• documented
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• document
  simple
• documents
  simple
• have documented
  perfect
• has documented
  perfect
• am documenting
  progressive
• are documenting
  progressive
• is documenting
  progressive
• have been documenting
  perfect progressive
• has been documenting
  perfect progressive

Past

• documented
  simple
• had documented
  perfect
• was documenting
  progressive
• were documenting
  progressive
• had been documenting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will document
  simple
• will have documented
  perfect
• will be documenting
  progressive
• will have been documenting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of document

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin documentum “example (as precedent, warning, etc.),” from doc(ēre) “to teach” + -u- (variant of -i- -i- before labials) + -mentum -ment

Explanation

A document is a piece of paper that contains official information. Don't you wish you had a document saying that the bank owed you $5 million? Document comes from the Latin verb meaning "to teach," so a document instructs you with the information it contains. Legal documents such as contracts contain instructions on how the people signing it will act. Passports, driver’s licenses and birth certificates are all official documents. As a verb, document means "to record in detail," or "offer supporting evidence for." If you call a company to complain about something, make sure to document your phone calls by noting the date you called, who you spoke to and what was said.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

document documents documented documenting

A previously unreported Binance document, along with other internal records, reveal the nuts and bolts of how Zanjani’s network used the exchange to move money against the wishes of Western governments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The CBO document, annoyingly, doesn’t break it out separately.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Claude-maker Anthropic each launched their own document creation tools in recent months.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Images of him, his workplace and a hotel where he had lived were found in a "briefing document" on Sepahvand's mobile phone.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

Then we are to document which plants and animals live nearby and how they interact with one another and their water source.

From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila

Beneficiaries should read their annual notice of change documents from their insurers to find out exactly what has changed for 2027 and what their new costs will be.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

The estranged spouses share one child and separated last summer, according to court documents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

That has led to the release of internal emails, corporate documents and whistleblower testimony that personal injury lawyers and prosecutors across the country have wielded to make their case.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Although it expired in 2007, the owners allowed her to stay, paying roughly €500 monthly—worth $560—in rent and utilities, according to court documents and public statements.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Mr. McDowell clasped his hands and folded them on top of a stack of documents.

From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty

During her visit, Wasko documented that the 1,708 detainees in the buildings had access to clean drinking water and hygiene products, and that the facility was kept clean.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

AI-powered predictive analytics are especially useful in the banking industry and tech consulting firm, Kitrum documented in a blog post earlier this year.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

In essence, it is this: How specific does a lawsuit have to be before a fiduciary’s documented, reasoned judgment gets treated as a legal liability instead of prudent diversification?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

He was, by his own admission, entering worlds that were not his, a young white photographer trusted with access to communities and spaces whose stories were rarely documented.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

To find a documented poisoning attributable to wild sweet pea, I had to go all the way back to the nineteenth-century annals of Arctic exploration.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

He and Oppenheim said it was Holmes who initiated conversations with independent entertainment company A24 about documenting her daily life.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

A nomadic childhood and life among migrant communities in Newport's Docklands had drawn him towards documenting lives beyond the mainstream.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Researchers and conservation groups are documenting its wildlife in an effort to build a scientific case for protecting the area.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026

Despite his ongoing asylum case, he now faces deportation to the country he fled and whose abuses he has spent years documenting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

This photograph from September 1862 was taken by Alexander Gardner, who worked for Mathew Brady in documenting the Civil War.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

Related Words

• archive
• certificate
• diary
• evidence
• form
• paper
• record
• report
• script
• testimony