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 If you make a documentary about the U.S. Library of Congress, you'll be documenting lots of historical documents.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

A new documentary on the 2022 slayings of four University of Idaho students highlights the lives of the victims instead of feeding grim fascination with the killer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

That day, walking home from a particularly sad documentary interview, I wasn’t sure it was helping.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

Fawaz's remarkable story is explored in the new BBC documentary Fighting for Freedom, which followed him as he prepared to defend his British title against Ryan Kelly in Wolverhampton in May.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

“My work has to do with recycling,” she told a documentary crew in the 1970s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

But the conceit of the film is that it feels like a documentary, even though it isn’t.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

I was upset that I’d never be able to thank her, to laud her for pushing students out of their comfort zones by showing them documentaries that were not easily palatable.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

Never mind that countless PBS documentaries have had no trouble realistically depicting revolutionary-era America without AI; Netflix is innovating.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

While there have been other more traditional Pompeii documentaries, Hiddleston felt he had something distinctive to offer, thanks to his “day job.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

He also hosted The Heaven and Earth Show and fronted documentaries including Absolute Truth, a four-part BBC Two series about the Catholic Church.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

I recognized some of the Olympic fencers I’d seen in documentaries and videos we’d watched during practice.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad

Related Words

• broadcast
• feature
• film
• narrative