documentary
documentaries; documentarily
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 If you make a documentary about the U.S. Library of Congress, you'll be documenting lots of historical documents.
-
a film or TV program presenting the facts about a person or event
-
synonyms:
docudrama, documentary film, infotainment
-
type of:
-
film, flick, motion picture, motion-picture show, movie, moving picture, moving-picture show, pic, picture, picture show
a form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement
-
film, flick, motion picture, motion-picture show, movie, moving picture, moving-picture show, pic, picture, picture show
-
relating to or consisting of or derived from documents
-
synonyms:
documental
-
emphasizing or expressing things as perceived without distortion of personal feelings, insertion of fictional matter, or interpretation
Vocabulary lists containing documentary
The Academy Awards have been presented every year since 1929. Although some changes have occurred since then – the venue and award categories – the art deco Oscar statue has remained virtually the same. Celebrate this collection of essential terms necessary for any viewer to enjoy the famous ceremony. Here are links to our lists in the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6
After receiving an old lawnmower on his 12th birthday, the unnamed narrator recounts the adventurous summer he spent mowing his neighbors' lawns and becoming a young entrepreneur.
Look up documentary for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
