Did you know?
Gather together various documents relating to the affairs of a certain individual, sort them into separate folders, label the spine of each folder, and arrange the folders in a box. Dossier, the French word for such a compendium of spine-labeled folders, was picked up by English speakers in the 19th century. It comes from dos, the French word for "back." The verb endorse (which originally meant "to write on the back of") and the rare adjective addorsed ("set or turned back to back," a term primarily used in heraldry) are also derived, via the Anglo-French endosser and French adosser respectively, from dos. The French dos has its origins in the Latin dorsum, a word which also gave English the adjective dorsal ("situated on the back"), as in "the dorsal fin of a whale."
Examples of dossier in a Sentence
Quanta Magazine, 2 Apr. 2024
The agency has come under intense scrutiny since the end of January when Israel presented a dossier alleging 12 members of UNRWA's staff participated in the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, leading to several countries pausing UNWRA funding.
—Guy Davies, ABC News, 25 Mar. 2024
An intelligence dossier containing what Israel says is additional evidence was also transmitted to the U.S. and other allies, but has not been made public.
—Josh Lederman, NBC News, 13 Mar. 2024
The decision to halt funding came after Israel shared a dossier that alleged more than a dozen UNRWA employees had been involved in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and alleged widespread support for Hamas and other militant groups within the organization.
—Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2024
Recommended Safety West Bank settler extremists widen campaign against Palestinians
The dossier says Israel also has wider evidence that UNRWA has employed 190 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
—Reuters Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Jan. 2024
That would be the Clinton campaign’s scheme to create a dossier of doctored materials alleging a Trump-Russia link.
—WSJ, 20 Dec. 2023
While the 10-K document is more worth than its weight in gold, any investor hoping to learn more about reading and understanding the various complexities of the dossier should tap into resources made publicly available either by the company or SEC.
—Jacob Wolinsky, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024
The dossier states that 1,200 of UNRWA’s 12,000 staffers in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are local hires, are tied to one of the two groups in some way, according to the Journal.
—Jimmy Quinn, National Review, 29 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dossier.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
French, bundle of documents labeled on the back, dossier, from dos back, from Latin dorsum — see dorsal entry 2
1835, in the meaning defined above
Podcast
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!
Dictionary Entries Near dossier
Cite this Entry
“Dossier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dossier. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
dossier
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on dossier
Nglish: Translation of dossier for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of dossier for Arabic Speakers
Share