commentary

Close explication of a text, focusing on language

Written workliterary genre activity literature termQ1749541

Also known as commentary of a text · textual commentary · explication · comment

Overview

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In philology, a commentary is a line-by-line or even word-by-word explication usually attached to an edition of a text in the same or an accompanying volume. It may draw on methodologies of close reading and literary criticism, but its primary purpose is to elucidate the language of the text and the specific culture that produced it, both of which may be foreign to the reader. Such a commentary usually takes the form of footnotes, endnotes, or separate text cross-referenced by line, paragraph or page.

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All data

31 statements · 10% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Subclass of: document
non-fiction
Practiced by: commentator
Different from: commentary
commentarii

Data quality

statements

10%

externally sourced

Source last edited August 3, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). commentary (Q1749541). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/commentary-Q1749541