commentary

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A series of explanations or interpretations.
2. n. An expository treatise or series of annotations; an exegesis. Often used in the plural.
3. n. An apt explanation or illustration: a scandal that is a sad commentary on national politics.
4. n. A personal narrative; a memoir. Often used in the plural.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A series or collection of comments or annotations; especially, an explanation or elucidation of difficult and obscure passages in a book or other writing, and consideration of questions suggested by them, arranged in the same order as in the text or writing examined; an explanatory essay or treatise: as, a commentary on the Bible. A textual commentary explains the author's meaning, sentence by sentence.
2. n. Anything that serves to explain or illustrate; an exemplification.
3. n. A historical narrative; an explanatory record of particular transactions: as, the Commentaries of Cæsar.
4. n. Synonyms See remark, n.
5. To write notes or comments.
6. To comment upon.

Wiktionary

1. n. A series of comments or annotations; especially, a book of explanations or expositions on the whole or a part of some other work.
2. n. A brief account of transactions or events written hastily, as if for a memorandum; -- usually in the plural; as, Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War.
3. n. An oral description of an event, especially broadcast by television or radio, as it occurs.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A series of comments or annotations; esp., a book of explanations or expositions on the whole or a part of the Scriptures or of some other work.
2. n. A brief account of transactions or events written hastily, as if for a memorandum; -- usually in the plural.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a written explanation or criticism or illustration that is added to a book or other textual material