commentary
/ˈkɒmənt(ə)ri
/noun (plural commentaries)
1An expression of opinions or offering of explanations about an event or situation: a biting social commentary about the divide between rich and poor an editorial commentary [mass noun]: a narrative overlaid with commentary...
- We excluded editorials, commentaries, articles for debate and education, narrative reviews, letters, and case reports.
- What can one say about this dismal situation in an editorial or a commentary?
- The aim, of course, was to ensure that the angle of every report, quite apart from the editorials and commentaries, should reinforce the papers' political agendas.
1.1A descriptive spoken account (especially on a broadcast) of an event or performance as it happens: a live commentary on radio...
- John Motson has been a television football commentator for the BBC since 1971, and has recently started doing radio match commentaries for BBC Radio Five Live.
- He will also present other sports programmes for BBC London, fitting them into his schedule of commentaries for BBC Radio Five Live.
- Green has been providing his unique commentaries for Radio Five since it started in 1994 and will continue to do so.
Synonyms
narration, description, account, report, review, analysis
1.2A set of explanatory or critical notes on a text: a commentary on the Old Testament...
- The commentary to both texts notes that significant harm need not be substantial but must be ‘more than trivial’.
- The Javanese system comprises thousands of Islamic boarding schools that have been set up to teach the core texts of Islam, along with critiques and commentaries on those texts.
- If only Brian Herbert would follow the example of Christopher Tolkien and publish the notes along with other commentaries.
Synonyms
explanation, explication, elucidation, exegesis, examination, interpretation, analysis;
criticism, critical analysis, critique, assessment, appraisal, opinion;
notes, footnotes, comments, weblog, blog, vlog
rare scholia
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin commentarius, commentarium (adjective, used as a noun), from commentari, frequentative of comminisci 'devise'.