newsreel

American  

[nooz-reel, nyooz-] / ˈnuzˌril, ˈnjuz- /

noun

1. a short motion picture presenting current or recent events.

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newsreel British  

/ ˈnjuːzˌriːl /

noun

1. a short film with a commentary presenting current events

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Etymology

Origin of newsreel

First recorded in 1915–20; news + reel ¹

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Explanation

A newsreel is a short, informative documentary film. In the early part of the twentieth century, newsreels were usually shown before movies in theaters. In the early 1900s, newsreels ran (often along with a cartoon) before a film. During World War Two, newsreels gave movie-goers news about the war as well as current events at home. The word dates from about 1915, from news and reel, the cylinder that film was wound around for being projected onto a screen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

newsreel

The notion that motion pictures could make a record of real-world events was formalized with the advent of the newsreel, the creation of which is credited to the French studio Pathé in 1910.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

My social media timeline transformed into a newsreel of sobbing men and women chased down by anonymous agents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

A Pathé newsreel, filmed when she was five years old, noted that the toddler had "surprised musical critics by her playing of Beethoven".

From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026

The product wasn’t profitable, and every user who spliced themselves into a World War II newsreel or Hollywood chase scene drew down a finite resource.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026

Universal Pictures came and shot newsreel footage of them, just in case it was needed for the Olympics.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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