documentary

English

Etymology

From French adjective and (hence) noun documentaire, from document, from Latin documentum. Equivalent to document +‎ -ary.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/, /ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tɹi/

  • Audio (Texas):

    (file)

Adjective

documentary (not comparable)

1. Of, related to, or based on documents.
2. Which serves to document (record or illustrate) a subject.
3. (of a film, book, etc) Presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter.

   a documentary film

Derived terms

• documentarily
• documentariness
• documentary hypothesis
• nondocumentary
• predocumentary
• quasidocumentary
• undocumentary

 

Translations

of, related to or based on documents/that serves to document something

• Arabic: وَثَائِقِيّ (ar) m (waṯāʔiqiyy)
• Belarusian: дакумента́льны (dakumjentálʹny)
• Bulgarian: документа́лен (dokumentálen)
• Catalan: documental (ca)
• Dutch: documentair (nl)
• Finnish: dokumentaarinen
• French: documentaire (fr)
• Georgian: დოკუმენტური (doḳumenṭuri)
• Hindi: वृत्तचित्र (vŕttacitra)
• Icelandic: heimilda-
• Indonesian: dokumenter (id)
• Polish: dokumentalny (pl), dokumentarny
• Portuguese: documental (pt)
• Romanian: documentar (ro) m
• Russian: документа́льный (ru) (dokumentálʹnyj)
• Spanish: documental (es), documentario
• Swedish: dokumentarisk (sv)
• Thai: สารคดี (th) (sǎa-rá-ká-dii)
• Ukrainian: документа́льний (dokumentálʹnyj)
• Volapük: dokümik (vo)

presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter

• Arabic: مُوَثَّق m (muwaṯṯaq)
• Armenian: վավերագրական (hy) (vaveragrakan)
• Azerbaijani: sənədli (az)
• Czech: dokumentární (cs)
• Finnish: dokumentaarinen
• Georgian: დოკუმენტური (doḳumenṭuri)
• Hebrew: תיעודי (ti'udy)
• Hindi: वृत्तचित्र (vŕttacitra)
• Italian: documentario (it) m
• Portuguese: documental (pt)
• Spanish: documental (es) m
• Swedish: dokumentär (sv)
• Thai: สารคดี (th) (sǎa-rá-ká-dii)

Noun

documentary (countable and uncountable, plural documentaries)

1. A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.
   • 2014 December 4, Brooks Barnes, Michael Cieply, “Documentaries Jostle Against Oscar Obscurity”, in The New York Times, retrieved 28 June 2015:

     Fifteen documentaries are in sharp-elbowed competition to be among the five Oscar nominees.

2. (uncountable) Such works collectively, as a genre.
   • 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 61:

     Such sequences draw attention to the affective appeals that environmental documentary typically makes, precisely by absenting those appeals.

Antonyms

• fiction

Derived terms

• antidocumentary
• doco
• docucomedy
• docudrama
• docufantasy
• docufiction
• docufilm
• documedia
• documemoir
• documentarian
• documentarist
• documentarylike
• documercial
• docuseries
• docuseries
• docusoap
• docutainment
• drama documentary
• dramamentary
• false documentary
• fictional documentary
• fuckumentary
• microdocumentary
• minidocumentary
• mockumentary
• photodocumentary
• pseudodocumentary
• rockumentary
• schlockumentary
• semidocumentary
• shockumentary
• soapumentary
• stalkumentary
• vlogumentary
• webumentary

 

Translations

programme or publication of fact

• Afrikaans: dokumentêr, dokkie
• Arabic: وَثَائِقِيّ (ar) m (waṯāʔiqiyy), شَرِيطٌ وَثَائِقِيّ m (šarīṭun waṯāʔiqiyy)
• Armenian: վավերագրական կինոնկար (hy) (vaveragrakan kinonkar)
• Catalan: documental (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 紀錄片 / 纪录片 (zh) (jìlùpiàn)

• Czech: dokument (cs) m
• Dutch: documentaire (nl) m, docu (nl) m
• Estonian: dokumentaalfilm, tõsielufilm, dokk (colloquial)
• Finnish: dokumentaari (fi), dokumenttielokuva (fi), dokumentti (fi)
• French: documentaire (fr) m
• German: Dokumentation (de) f, Doku (de) f
• Hindi: वृत्तचित्र (vŕttacitra)
• Irish: clár faisnéise m, scannán faisnéise m (film)
• Malay: dokumentari
• Maori: motuhenga, pakipūmeka
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dokumentar (no) m, dokumentarprogram n

  Nynorsk: dokumentar m, dokumentarprogram n

• Occitan: documentari (oc) m
• Portuguese: documentário (pt) m
• Spanish: documental (es) m
• Swedish: dokumentärfilm (sv) c, dokumentär (sv) c
• Tagalog: dokumentaryo
• Thai: สารคดี (th) (sǎa-rá-ká-dii)
• Turkish: belgesel (tr)
• West Frisian: dokumintêre m

documentary film

• Albanian: film dokumentar m
• Arabic: فِلْم وَثَائِقِيّ m (film waṯāʔiqiyy), فيلم وثائقي m (fīlm waṯāʔiqiyy)
• Armenian: վավերագրական կինոնկար (hy) (vaveragrakan kinonkar)
• Azerbaijani: sənədli film
• Belarusian: дакумента́льны фільм m (dakumjentálʹny filʹm)
• Bengali: প্রামাণ্য চলচ্চিত্র (pramanno coloccitro)
• Bulgarian: документа́лен филм m (dokumentálen film)
• Catalan: documental (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 紀錄片 / 纪录片 (zh) (jìlùpiàn), 記錄片 / 记录片 (zh) (jìlùpiàn)

• Corsican: documentariu m, ducumentariu m
• Czech: dokumentární film m
• Danish: dokumentarfilm c
• Dutch: documentaire (nl) m, documentairefilm (nl) m
• Esperanto: dokumentfilmo
• Estonian: dokumentaalfilm
• Finnish: dokumentti (fi), dokumenttielokuva (fi), dokkari (fi)
• French: documentaire (fr) m, film documentaire m
• Georgian: დოკუმენტური ფილმი (doḳumenṭuri pilmi)
• German: Dokumentation (de) f, Dokumentarfilm (de) m
• Greek: ντοκιμαντέρ (el) n (ntokimantér)
• Hebrew: צִלוּמֵי תְעוּדָה m
• Hindi: वृत्तचित्र m (vŕttacitra)
• Hungarian: dokumentumfilm (hu)
• Icelandic: heimildamynd f
• Indonesian: film dokumenter (id)
• Irish: scannán faisnéise m
• Italian: documentario (it) m
• Japanese: ドキュメンタリー (ja) (dokyumentarī), 記録映画 (きろくえいが, kiroku eiga)
• Kazakh: деректі фильм (derektı film)
• Khmer: ភាពយន្តឯកសារ (phiəpyŭən ʼaekaʼsaa)
• Korean: 다큐멘터리 (ko) (dakyumenteori), 기록영화(記錄映畫) (ko) (girogyeonghwa)
• Kyrgyz: документ кино (dokument kino)
• Lao: ຟິມເອກະສານ (fim ʼē ka sān)
• Latvian: dokumentālā filma f
• Lithuanian: dokumentinis kinas m
• Macedonian: документа́рец m (dokumentárec), документа́рен филм m (dokumentáren film)
• Malay: filem dokumentari
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: баримтат кино (barimtat kino)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dokumentar (no) m, dokumentarfilm m

  Nynorsk: dokumentar m, dokumentarfilm m

• Persian: مستند (fa) (mostanad), فیلم مستند (fa) (film-e mostanad)
• Polish: film dokumentalny (pl) m, dokument (pl) m
• Portuguese: documentário (pt) m
• Romanian: documentar (ro) n, film documentar n
• Russian: документа́льный фильм (ru) m (dokumentálʹnyj filʹm)
• Scots: documentarie, documentarie film
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: документарни филм m

  Roman: dokumentarni film m

• Slovak: dokumentárny film m
• Slovene: dokumentarni film m
• Spanish: documental (es) m
• Swedish: dokumentär (sv) c, dokumentärfilm (sv) c
• Tagalog: dokumentaryo
• Tajik: филми мустанад (film-i mustanad)
• Thai: สารคดี (th) (sǎa-rá-ká-dii), ภาพยนตร์สารคดี (pâap-pá-yon-sǎa-rá-ká-dii)
• Turkish: belgesel (tr), belgesel film (tr)
• Ukrainian: документа́льний фільм m (dokumentálʹnyj filʹm)
• Uyghur: ھۆججەتلىك فىلىم (höjjetlik filim)
• Uzbek: hujjatli film
• Vietnamese: phim tài liệu
• West Frisian: dokumintêre m, dokumintêrefilm m

See also

• cinéma vérité

Anagrams

• countrymade