Document

How to spell document

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce document

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does document mean?

1. nounA piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that records or provides official information.
2. verbTo record something in written, photographic, or other lasting form.

Document in a sentence

• noun

  She saved the document to the shared drive before the meeting.

• verb

  The inspectors carefully document every fault they found in the building.

• noun

  Please bring a valid identity document to collect the parcel.

• verb

  Researchers must document each step of the experiment for later review.

Where does document come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin documentum, which meant a lesson, a proof, or an example, anything that teaches or demonstrates a point. That noun was built on the verb docere, meaning 'to teach' or 'to show', the same root that gives us 'doctor' (originally a learned teacher) and 'doctrine'. English borrowed it through Old French in the fifteenth century, at first in the sense of instruction or evidence; only later did it narrow to mean a written record or official paper that proves or records something. The shift from 'a thing that teaches' to 'a written record' is easy to trace: a written record was simply the most reliable kind of proof. The spelling stays close to the Latin, so the unstressed middle vowel that sounds like a vague 'yuh' is actually a 'u', a detail worth fixing in memory.

How the word is built

• docu- (from Latin docere: to teach, show)
• -ment (noun/result suffix)