footage

noun

foot·​age ˈfu̇-tij 

1

: recorded video material

A camerawoman from Channel 12 shows up to grab some footage for the evening news.

—Bari Walsh

Video footage posted online shows him daring an audience member to fight …

—Latifah Muhammad

Ramsay uses security footage from inside and outside of the brownstone to detail Joe's actions.

—Kyle Turner

The documentary series that presents archival images and film footage in color continues, this week focusing on memorable events from the 1940s.

—Kristi Turnquist

2

: length or quantity expressed in feet: such as

a

: board feet

b

: the total number of running feet of motion-picture film used (as for a scene or subject)

The people of Hiroshima had a fund-raising campaign to purchase footage from films taken by American photographers … . They calculated they could purchase ten feet of footage for one thousand yen …

—Ruth Ann Keyso and Masahide Ota

Examples of footage in a Sentence

Some disturbing footage of the war was shown on the evening news.

Recent Examples on the Web

Watching the body-camera footage released by police shows a woman with what looks like at least one large chef’s knife in hand while opening a glass sliding door from the single-family home’s patio. — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 29 June 2026

Surveillance camera footage from a neighbor's house shows what was likely the simultaneous moments that a fire broke out in the bushes outside of their Hesby Street home, as a person pushing a shopping cart stopped for a few minutes. — Brittney Ermon, CBS News, 29 June 2026

Every frame was assembled from footage the community itself had already contributed. — Afdhel Aziz, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026

Surveillance footage has since been shared of a man wearing a hood in the extreme heat and hiking at Lohagad Fort, who is believed to be Chaudhary. — Rachel McRady, PEOPLE, 29 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing footage

• stock footage

Kids Definition

footage

noun

foot·​age ˈfu̇-tij 

1

: length measured in feet

2

: scenes or action recorded on film or video