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noun

commentary

a written explanation or criticism or illustration that is added to a book or other textual material

In a sentence

Six example sentences with commentary, each labelled with its topic.

  • The scholarly edition prints the poem on one page and a dense commentary on the facing page, line by line.

    Literature

  • Students read the treatise alongside a medieval commentary that unpacks each argument the original author left compressed into a phrase.

    Philosophy

  • Every annotated statute in the library carries a commentary explaining how later courts have read each ambiguous clause.

    Law

  • The facsimile of the illuminated manuscript comes with a commentary volume explaining each margin painting and its Latin caption.

    Art

  • The new edition of the sonatas pairs each page of score with a commentary on tempo marks the composer later crossed out.

    Music

  • The translation of the old astronomy treatise carries a commentary that explains each diagram in modern notation.

    Science

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Found in these word lists

Found in 3 published word listsAuthoritative

Each source is a published word list that contains commentary. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

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