footage

noun

foot·​age ˈfu̇-tij How to pronounce footage (audio)
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
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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
State television footage showed heavy traffic on major highways, with cars packed bumper-to-bumper as families attempted to reach northern provinces. Arkansas Online, 2 Mar. 2026 Notably, the jury saw body-camera footage from May 21, 2023, when deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office visited Colt and Colin Gray’s home after receiving an FBI tip about an online threat to shoot up a school. Eric Levenson, CNN Money, 2 Mar. 2026 After Friedmann’s arrest, Hall’s staff had combed through two million hours of footage from the Downtown Detention Center’s six hundred cameras, compiling a reel of Friedmann’s every movement in the jail. James Verini, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026 By sunrise, the normally crowded stretch of West Sixth Street had been transformed into an expansive crime scene, with investigators collecting shell casings, canvassing nearby businesses for surveillance footage and interviewing patrons and witnesses who had fled the gunfire. Emiliano Tahui Gómez, Austin American Statesman, 2 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for footage

Word History

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of footage was in 1842

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Footage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/footage. Accessed 7 Mar. 2026.

Kids Definition

footage

noun
foot·​age ˈfu̇-tij How to pronounce footage (audio)
1
: length measured in feet
2
: scenes or action recorded on film or video

More from Merriam-Webster on footage

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster