— commentarial /kom'euhn tair"ee euhl/ , adj.
/kom"euhn ter'ee/ , n. , pl. commentaries .
1. a series of comments, explanations, or annotations: a commentary on the Bible; news followed by a commentary.
2. an explanatory essay or treatise: a commentary on a play; Blackstone's commentaries on law.
3. anything serving to illustrate a point, prompt a realization, or exemplify, esp. in the case of something unfortunate: The dropout rate is a sad commentary on our school system.
4. Usually, commentaries . records of facts or events: Commentaries written by Roman lawyers give us information on how their courts functioned.
[ 1375-1425; late ME commentaries (pl.) commentarium notebook, n. use of neut. of commentarius, equiv. to comment ( um ) COMMENT + -arius -ARY ]