documentary UK /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/US /ˌdɑ.kjəˈmɛn.tə.ɹi/noun 2adjective 3forms 1 noun2 •a movie or television show that reports on real events, people or places rather than telling a made-up storyFifteen documentaries are in sharp-elbowed competition to be among the five Oscar nominees. — 2014 •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 adjective3 •Of, related to, or based on documents. •Which serves to document (record or illustrate) a subject. •Presented objectively without the insertion of fictional matter.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 formsdocumentaries
