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

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Etymology

Origin of documentary

First recorded in 1795–1805; document + -ary

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 If you make a documentary about the U.S. Library of Congress, you'll be documenting lots of historical documents.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

Wong, who turned 30 last month, was the subject of a Netflix documentary and his picture was splashed on magazine covers the world over -- until he disappeared from the public eye and into prison.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

Howard’s documentary features interviews with fellow photographers, models, magazine editors, writers, former assistants and art dealers, including Larry Gagosian, who reminisces about meeting Avedon for the first time in New York in the mid-1970s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

The hit movie of the fall is…a three-hour documentary about investor fraud?

From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026

The remarks came in a second excerpt released by ITV from the forthcoming documentary Dear Henry: Our Fight For Justice.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Her tears have turned to anger, the kind of rant she and Kat might have gone on after watching some documentary.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

In many adventure documentaries, the audience expects the main characters to confront the possibility they might die, but they’re the stars telling the story, so of course that won’t happen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

This is partly why those ripped-from-the-headlines streaming documentaries are so popular: They reflect stories that are buzzy but fleeting, perfect for those whose attention spans are already shot.

From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026

In 2019, competing documentaries about the disastrous Fyre Festival took different approaches to paying its disgraced organizer, Billy McFarland.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

Generally, yes — at least in documentaries that follow traditional journalistic standards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

But instead, there are several articles and documentaries on the history of representation for black women.

From "Watch Us Rise" by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

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Related Words

• broadcast
• feature
• film
• narrative

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