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# documentary

«documentary» in Mova's school dictionary: **a film or TV programme about real people, places and…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a documentary, documentaries); adjective (documentary)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A documentary is a film or TV programme about real people, places and events, giving facts and information. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#m1)

2) Documentary (adjective) means made of documents, as in «documentary evidence». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In school, classes watch nature documentaries (like those by David Attenborough) and history documentaries. In media lessons, pupils learn that documentaries can still choose what to show, so they are not always neutral. In law, documentary evidence is written proof.

### examples

- We watched a documentary about penguins. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x1)
- The documentary showed real footage from the war. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x2)
- Sir David Attenborough makes nature documentaries. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x3)
- Our class made a short documentary about recycling. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x4)
- Is this a documentary or a made-up story? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x5)
- There is documentary evidence that the castle was built by the king. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/#x6)

### note

Plural: documentaries. A documentary is non-fiction but can still have a point of view.

### In the corpora

- [Documentary shows about real hospitals film real patients who agreed; they show the exciting moments chosen from hundreds of hours.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/54-reality-tv-what-is-staged-and-what-is-real/22/)
- [Documentaries are films about real life, like nature, history or sport, and the best ones are as gripping as any story.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/26-age-ratings-scary-films-and-choosing-what-to-watch/15/)
- [Even true documentaries are made, not just recorded.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/395-documentaries-vs-cartoons-added-sounds-edited-stories-and-what-is-real/2/)
- [Even a documentary can be staged, so it is worth asking how a scene was filmed.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/8-wild-animals-and-tall-tales/17/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «documentary» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/documentary/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.