home video

noun

plural home videos

1

: a homemade video (see video entry 1 sense 1) that is not usually intended for commercial release or distribution

We showed our friends home videos of our vacation in the Caribbean.

People are consuming millions of hours of shaky, selfie-quality home video on their phones every day.

—Karen Bussone

… make a home video, using a cell phone or camera, of yourself performing your selection.

—The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, North Carolina)

2

: prerecorded video (see video entry 1 sense 1a) marketed for home viewing

The popular TV series … returns to home video with the DVD and Blu-ray releases of … Season Three.

—Mike Spring

It's not clear when other [streaming] platforms will add season four, but it usually takes several months for new seasons to receive a home video release …

—Business Insider US

Examples of home video in a Sentence

the latest releases in home video

We watched a home video of their wedding.

Recent Examples on the Web

Re-released by Grasshopper Film and Arbelos Films with a streaming and home video release to follow, the new 4K restoration of the film’s original version that premiered at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival is a few minutes longer than what played at Sundance just a few months later. —Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2026

Additional commitments include maintaining HBO as an independent operation, ensuring every film receives a full theatrical release with a minimum 45-day global window before paid video-on-demand availability, and preserving the home video window following theatrical runs. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 5 Feb. 2026

And that wasn’t even taking into account the waterfall of cash that came from the movie’s immensely successful home video release. —Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 26 Jan. 2026

Watching it back, the resemblance to her childhood home videos felt uncanny. —Sara Radin, Vogue, 13 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined at sense 2