docufiction

D2O1C3U1F4I1C3T1I1O1N1

noun

A cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction.

Scrabble 19

Meanings

noundocufiction (countable and uncountable, plural docufictions)

plural docufictions · alternative docu-fiction

  1. countableuncountablebroadcastingA cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction.

    The Novel as Document: The "Docufiction" of Norman Mailer, Jay Cantor, and Jack Kerouac WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SAY that a novel-a work of fiction is based on the life of a real person, on events that really happened in the world […]

    1988, Welch D. Everman, Who Says This?: The Authority of the Author, the Discourse, and the Reader, SIU Press, →ISBN, page 3
    1 more example

    Although not a new phenomenon as such, the genre of the docufiction film has grown spectacularly since the global and digital turns in the 1990s. Retrospectively attributed to the practices of such diverse filmmakers as Robert Flaherty, Jean Rouch, or Abbas Kiarostami, the genre, as the name suggests, applies to hybrid films that cross the traditional division of films between fiction and documentary. […] The docufiction genre generally, and Werner Herzog's recent films in particular, form crystals of a special kind.

    2019, Jeroen Gerrits, chapter 4, in Cinematic Skepticism: Across Digital and Global Turns, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 73

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*deḱ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*doḱ-éye-ti
  3. Proto-Italic*dokejō
  4. Proto-Italic*dokeō
  5. Ancient Greekδιδάσκω (didáskō)
  6. Latindoceō
  7. Latindocumentum
  8. Frenchdocument
  9. Frenchdocumentaire
  10. Englishdocumentary
  11. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeyǵʰ-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*dʰinéǵʰti
  13. Proto-Italic*θingō
  14. Proto-Italic*fingō
  15. Latinfingō
  16. Latinfictiō
  17. Old Frenchficcion
  18. Middle Englishficcioun
  19. Englishfiction
  20. Englishdocufiction

Blend of documentary + fiction.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French docufiction
  • docufictioncombination of documentary and fiction
German Dokufiktion
  • Dokufiktioncombination of documentary and fiction
Polish docufiction
  • docufictioncombination of documentary and fiction
Spanish docuficción
  • docuficcióncombination of documentary and fiction
Cite this entry
APA

docufiction. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/docufiction

MLA

“docufiction.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/docufiction. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “docufiction,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/docufiction.

Source: docufiction on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.