documentary
/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/US/ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
documentary adjective: of, related to, or based on documents.
Adjective
documentary (not comparable)
- Of, related to, or based on documents.
- Synonyms:
- documentative, documentational
- Which serves to document (record or illustrate) a subject.
- Synonyms:
- documentative, documentational
- Presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter.
- a documentary film
- Just as there is a tradition of history painting, so there is one of history photographs — which of course are not documentary. They're posed as the world was supposed to be.1982 February 6, Martin Krieger, “Stark/Erotic”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 28, page 10
Noun
documentary (countable and uncountable, plural documentaries)
- A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.
- Fifteen documentaries are in sharp-elbowed competition to be among the five Oscar nominees.2014 December 4, Brooks Barnes, Michael Cieply, “Documentaries Jostle Against Oscar Obscurity”, in The New York Times, retrieved 28 Jun 2015
- If you watched Victoria Beckham’s lavishly produced Netflix documentary last October, you might have wondered why it didn’t even glance on the biggest elephant in Brand Beckham’s room[…]. But most big documentaries these days aren’t documentaries any more in the way previous practitioners of the...2026 January 20, Marina Hyde, “It’s a Brooklyn v Beckham Inc disaster: what happens when the elephant in the room goes rogue”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Such works collectively, as a genre.
- Such sequences draw attention to the affective appeals that environmental documentary typically makes, precisely by absenting those appeals.2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 61
documentary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
documentary in Hindi
- of, related to or based on documents/that serves to document something
- वृत्तचित्र vŕttacitra
- presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter
- वृत्तचित्र vŕttacitra
- programme or publication of fact
- वृत्तचित्र vŕttacitra
- documentary film
- वृत्तचित्र vŕttacitra
documentary in Tamil
- ஆவணப்படம், விளக்கப்படம், விவரணப்படம், விவரணக் காட்சி
documentary in Marathi
- माहितीपट, माहितीपटाचे
documentary in Urdu
- documentary film
- دَسْتاویزی dastāvezī, تَحْرِیری tahrīrī
More languagesFewer languages
- documentary in Bengali
- প্রামাণ্য চলচ্চিত্র pramanno coloccitro
- documentary in Telugu
- డాక్యుమెంటరీ
- documentary in Malayalam
- രേഖാമൂലമായ, ആധാരരേഖാസംബന്ധിയായ
- documentary in Kannada
- ಸಾಕ್ಷ್ಯಚಿತ್ರ, ದಾಖಲೆಗಳ, ಸಾಕ್ಷ್ಯಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ, ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಸಹಿತವಾದ
- documentary in Punjabi
- ਦਸਤਾਵੇਜ਼ੀ, ਡਾਕੂਮੈਂਟਰੀ
- documentary in Gujarati
- દસ્તાવેજી, ડોક્યુમેન્ટરી
- documentary in Odia
- ଡକ୍ଯ଼ୁମେଣ୍ଟାରୀ, ଡକୁମେଣ୍ଟାରୀ
- documentary in Nepali
- वृत्तचित्र, दस्तावेजी
- documentary in Tagalog
- dokumentaryo, dokumental
- documentary in Arabic
- وَثَائِقِيّ waṯāʔiqiyy, مُوَثَّق muwaṯṯaq, شَرِيطٌ وَثَائِقِيّ šarīṭun waṯāʔiqiyy, فِلْم وَثَائِقِيّ film waṯāʔiqiyy
- documentary in Malay
- dokumentari, filem dokumentari
- documentary in Indonesian
- dokumenter, film dokumenter
- documentary in Thai
- สารคดี sǎa-rá-ká-dii, ภาพยนตร์สารคดี pâap-pá-yon-sǎa-rá-ká-dii
- documentary in Vietnamese
- phim tài liệu
Examples of documentary in a sentence
- I was mostly unfamiliar with the nautical terms used in the sailing documentary.
- The documentary will narrate the rise and fall of the historic club.
- A year in the making, the following is the definitive documentary on the issue.
Synonyms of documentary
Antonyms
Forms of documentary
| plural | documentaries |
|---|
Origin of documentary
From French adjective and (hence) noun documentaire, from document, from Latin documentum. Equivalent to document + -ary.
Words formed from documentary
- documentarily
- documentariness
- documentary hypothesis
- nondocumentary
- predocumentary
- quasidocumentary
- undocumentary
- antidocumentary
- doco
- docucomedy
- docudrama
- docufantasy
- docufiction
- docufilm
- documedia
- documemoir
- documentarian
- documentarist
- documentarylike
- documercial
- docuseries
- docusoap
- docutainment
- drama documentary
- dramamentary
- false documentary
- fictional documentary
- fuckumentary
- microdocumentary
- minidocumentary
- mockumentary
- photodocumentary
- pseudodocumentary
- rockumentary
- schlockumentary
- semidocumentary
- shockumentary
- soapumentary
- stalkumentary
- vlogumentary
- webumentary
Questions about documentary
- What does documentary mean?
- Documentary means of, related to, or based on documents.
- What is documentary in Hindi?
- Documentary in Hindi is वृत्तचित्र (vŕttacitra). See Documentary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is documentary?
- Documentary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce documentary?
- Documentary is pronounced /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/ (UK).
Words near documentary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: documentary (page history and authors); documentary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); documentary (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); documentary (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); documentary (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); documentary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); documentary (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); documentary (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); documentary (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); documentary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-documentary.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-documentary.wav.
Cite this entry: “documentary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/documentary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.