docudrama
/ˈdɑkjəˌdɹɑmə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.02 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A type of drama (a film, play, television show, etc.) that combines elements of documentary and drama, to some extent showing real events and to some extent using actors performing recreations of documented events.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "What he saw was a school system in defeat, in panic. When a man must fight he reaches for such weapons as he has and understands. Early last summer, Phil[lip C.] Lewis stripped the cover off his typewriter, squared a sheet of paper on the platen, and invented DocuDrama. It's a dramatization of the fix the schools are in."
- "A docu-drama entitled "Crisis in the Local Congregation" on extremism was presented by a group from the Fourth Avenue Methodist Church under the directorship of Mr. Martin Bard."
- "Ever since Roots, historical "docu[-]dramas" and "mini-series" have flourished on television and competed successfully for top ratings. […] "History" is not sick. On the other hand, the teaching of history may be."
- "In other words, docudrama covers an amazing variety of dramatic forms, bound together by two things. They are all based on or inspired by reality, by the lives of real people, or by events that have happened in the recent or not too distant past. Furthermore, they would seem to have a higher responsibility to accuracy and to truth than does fiction."
- "And docudramas would be the perfect epitaph because, though Norman Kingsley Mailer dreamed of being the monarch of the American novel, he was finally the king of faction, the man whose greatest books, a nightmare for any librarian hoping neatly to classify as fiction or non-fiction, consolidated the now standard view that reporting is as important to storytelling as invention."
- ""Docudrama" is by its nature a confusing genre—neither fish nor fowl, and thus lacking either taste or substance."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *doḱ-éye-ti Proto-Italic *dokejō Proto-Italic *dokeō Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō)sl. Latin doceō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Latin documentumbor. French document Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusder. French -aire French documentairebor. English documentary Ancient Greek δράω (dráō) Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Hellenic *-mə Ancient Greek -μᾰ (-mă) Ancient Greek δρᾶμᾰ (drâmă)bor. Late Latin drāmabor. English drama blend English docudrama Blend of documentary + drama.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɑkjəˌdɹɑmə/
- British English: /ˈdɒkjʊˌdɹɑːmə/
Usage
- American usage
- Countable
- Uncountable