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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

documentary.

Of, related to, or based on documents.

11 characters5 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/Canada, General-American/ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tɹi/Canada, General-American
  1. Of, related to, or based on documents.

    not-comparable
  2. Which serves to document (record or illustrate) a subject.

    not-comparable
  3. Presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter.

    not-comparable
    a documentary film
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-éye-ti Proto-Italic *dokejō Proto-Italic *dokeō Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō)sl. Latin doceō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Latin documentumbor. French document Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusder. French -aire French documentairebor. English documentary From French adjective and (hence) noun documentaire, from document, from Latin documentum. Equivalent to document + -ary.

noun/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/Canada, General-American/ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tɹi/Canada, General-American
  1. A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Such works collectively, as a genre.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-éye-ti Proto-Italic *dokejō Proto-Italic *dokeō Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō)sl. Latin doceō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Latin documentumbor. French document Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusder. French -aire French documentairebor. English documentary From French adjective and (hence) noun documentaire, from document, from Latin documentum. Equivalent to document + -ary.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.