Documentary Meaning
/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf, related to, or based on documents.
adjWhich serves to document (record or illustrate) a subject.
Sentence Examples
I don't watch a lot of movies, but I can't resist a good documentary.
That documentary about the environmental crisis was a real eye-opener.
There were some interesting interviews in the documentary.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The award-winning ____ explored the effects of ocean pollution on marine ecosystems.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I don't watch a lot of movies, but I can't resist a good ____.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ-der. Proto-Italic *dokeō 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 *-āzijos Latin -āriusder. French -aire French documentairebor. English documentary From French adjective and (hence) noun documentaire, from document, from Latin documentum. Equivalent to document + -ary.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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 craft might have understood the word. As her husband’s was before it, Victoria’s doc was a self-commissioned advertorial on which the subject also served as executive producer."
— 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 sequences draw attention to the affective appeals that environmental documentary typically makes, precisely by absenting those appeals."
— 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 61:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The award-winning ____ explored the effects of ocean pollution on marine ecosystems.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I don't watch a lot of movies, but I can't resist a good ____.