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.
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
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
A wealth of archival film and newsreel footage, home movies and snapshots — and, for context, new footage of tape recorders, ash trays and martini glasses — provide marvelous illustration of Taylor’s work and world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2024
The newsreel was on or something, and all of a sudden I felt this hand on the back of my neck, and it was Jane's.
From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
