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commentary

UK/ˈkɒm.ən.t(ə.)ɹi/US/ˈkɑ.mənˌtɛ.ɹi/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,917 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: commentaries

Commentary is a running account of events as they happen. Live commentary, a running commentary, the commentary box.

In broadcasting it is a real craft: radio commentary must describe everything and television commentary must know when to say nothing. A running commentary on somebody's own actions is a joke phrase for narrating what everybody can already see.

Definitions of commentary

  1. 1nouncommentaryA running account of events as they happen.C1

    “We listened to the radio commentary of the match in the car.”

commentary is an account.

Where it comes from

Latin commentarius meant a notebook or memoir, from commentari, to think over, from mens, the mind.

  1. Latin

    commentārius

  2. Middle French

    commentaire

  3. English, today

    commentary

Built from

  • commentārium · Latin — notebook

From Middle French commentaire, from Latin commentārius, commentārium (“notebook”), compare French commentaire. See comment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

commentary in the wild

  • A tafsir is an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran.

    Tafsir

  • A Quranic tafsir attempts to provide education, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding and conviction of God's will in Islam.

    Tafsir

  • Social commentary is the act of providing commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in society.

    Social commentary

  • The development of radio in the early 20th century significantly changed how the public consumed sports media by enabling listeners to hear commentary in real time.

    Sports commentator

  • Grist (originally Grist Magazine; also referred to as Grist.org) is an American non-profit online magazine founded in 1999 that publishes environmental news and commentary.

    Grist (magazine)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.