documentation

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌdɑkjəmənˈteɪʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdɒkjʊmənˈteɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Etymology 1

From document +‎ -ation or Medieval Latin documentātio.

Noun

documentation (countable and uncountable, plural documentations) (very rare in the plural)

1. Something transposed from a thought to a document; the written account of an idea.
2. Documentary evidence and sources.
3. (computing, mechanical engineering) Documents that explain the operation of a particular machine or software program.
4. (programming) Comments that explain the usage of individual functions, libraries and blocks of code.

Derived terms

• e-documentation
• photodocumentation

Related terms

• document

Translations

something transposed from a thought to a document

• Finnish: kirjaaminen (fi), dokumentointi (fi)
• Georgian: დოკუმენტაცია (doḳumenṭacia)
• Gujarati: દસ્તાવેજીકરણ (dastāvejīkraṇ)
• Hebrew: תיעוד (he) m (tiʿúd)
• Indonesian: dokumentasi (id)
• Khmer: ឯកសារកម្ម (ʼékâsarkmâm)
• Maori: mauhanga
• Norman: dotchûmentâtion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dokumentasjon m

  Nynorsk: dokumentasjon m

• Russian: документа́ция (ru) f (dokumentácija)

documents that explain the operation of a particular machine or software program

• Albanian: dokumentimi
• Arabic: وَثَائِق pl (waṯāʔiq)
• Assamese: আলেখ্যন (alekhyon)
• Asturian: documentación f
• Baluchi: نوشتانک
• Belarusian: дакумента́цыя f (dakumjentácyja)
• Bengali: নথিপত্র (bn) (nothipotro)
• Bulgarian: документа́ция f (dokumentácija)
• Catalan: documentació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 文檔／文档 (zh) (wéndàng), 文件 (zh) (wénjiàn)

• Czech: dokumentace f
• Danish: dokumentation c
• Dutch: documentatie (nl) c
• Esperanto: dokumentaro
• Finnish: ohjekirja, opas (fi), dokumentaatio (fi)
• French: documentation (fr) f
• Galician: documentación (gl) f
• Georgian: დოკუმენტაცია (doḳumenṭacia)
• German: Dokumentation (de) f
• Greek: τεκμηρίωση (el) f (tekmiríosi)
• Gujarati: દસ્તાવેજ (dastāvej), દસ્તાવેજીકરણ (dastāvejīkraṇ)
• Hebrew: תיעוד (he)
• Hindi: दस्तावेज़ीकरण (dastāvezīkraṇ)
• Hungarian: dokumentáció (hu)
• Icelandic: hjálparskjöl
• Ido: dokumentigo
• Indonesian: dokumentasi (id)
• Italian: documentazione (it) f
• Japanese: 文書 (ja) (ぶんしょ, bunsho), ドキュメンテーション (dokyumentēshon)
• Kannada: ದಸ್ತಾವೇಜು (kn) (dastāvēju)
• Khmer: ឯកសារកម្ម (ʼékâsarkmâm)
• Korean: 문서 (ko) (munseo)
• Latvian: dokumentācija
• Lithuanian: dokumentacija (lt)
• Macedonian: документација f (dokumentacija)
• Malay: dokumentasi
• Malayalam: വിവരണക്കുറിപ്പുകള് (vivaraṇakkuṟippukaḷ)
• Maori: msuhanga
• Marathi: दस्तऐवजीकरण (dastaivjīkraṇ)
• Norman: dotchûmentâtion f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dokumentasjon

• Occitan: documentacion f
• Odia: ଦଲିଲଗୁଡ଼ିକ (dôlilôguṛikô)
• Persian: مستندات (fa) (mostanadât)
• Polish: dokumentacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: documentação (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਡੌਕੂਮੈਂਟ (ḍaukūmaiṇṭ)
• Romanian: documentație (ro)
• Russian: документа́ция (ru) f (dokumentácija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: документација f

  Roman: dokumentacija (sh) f

• Slovak: dokumentácia f
• Slovene: dokumentacija f
• Spanish: documentación (es) f
• Swedish: dokumentation (sv) c
• Tajik: санадҳо (sanadho)
• Tamil: ஆவணமாக்கம் (āvaṇamākkam)
• Telugu: పత్రికీకరణ (patrikīkaraṇa)
• Thai: เอกสารการใช้งาน (àyk săan gaan chái ngaan)
• Turkish: belgebilim (tr)
• Ukrainian: документа́ція f (dokumentácija)

Etymology 2

From German Dokumentation.

Noun

documentation (plural documentations)

1. (non-native speakers' English) A documentary.
   • 1997 August 10, mclane, “Chess Analysis Software”, in rec.games.chess.computer‎^[1] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

     Yesterday I saw a documentation about Hitler and Stalin and the way Hitler cheated Stalin by suggesting him, he would NOT attack UdSSR but Great Britain. It was a very nice documentation, they showed that the whole bolschevism was just an arranged idea of germans, using Lenin/Stalin for own ideas.

   • 1999 April 8, Friedrich Vystrcil, “The plan to invade Japan”, in soc.history.war.world-war-ii‎^[2] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

     Yesterday I watched a documentation about the Dresden fire storm.

   • 2010 September 16, Volker Bartheld, “This is Germany calling...”, in rec.motorcycles.dirt‎^[3] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-05-01:

     Yesterday, I watched a documentation about the "boss" of a German allot settlement who told other gardeners what plants to grow and what weed to cut. GEEZE! GET A LIVE! I felt tempted paying a visit to them and leave a bunch of knobby tire marks on this sucker's lawn...

Further reading

• “documentation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔ.ky.mɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

documentation f (plural documentations)

1. documentation (written account)

Related terms

• document
• documenter

See also

• enregistrement

Further reading

• “documentation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.