newsreel
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of newsreel
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Kyiv was in the depths of a frigid winter so monochrome that the scene on the platform could have been an old newsreel, but it was 2022 and happening in a technicolour, digital age.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
It is accompanied by the first talking newsreel, giving it a box-office boost, and won three Oscars.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026
Burstein amply and nimbly illustrates the conversation with film clips, newsreel footage, photographs and interviews.
From Salon • Aug. 3, 2024
The spot also mimicked cartoon and newsreel effects using black-and-white pictures of Robert Kennedy Jr. similar to JFK.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 12, 2024
After her trips to Washington, they would meet secretly at newsreel theaters in Manhattan.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Definitions 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.
