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

Dashcam footage from a vehicle driving east on the highway showed a few cars begin to brake as the helicopter entered their field of view and fell toward the freeway. —Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 11 Oct. 2025

Shield then hops out of the police car, chasing the child down as the video footage ends. —Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 11 Oct. 2025

Prices start at only $16, but some of these deals are worth their square footage in gold. —Olivia Young, Travel + Leisure, 11 Oct. 2025

Watching footage of her tennis then, especially her 6-1, 6-2 dismantling of top seed Simona Halep in round four, the ease and fun are impossible to miss. —Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2025

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