autobiography
Americannoun
plural
autobiographiesnoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of autobiography
Explanation
You are writing an autobiography when you write your own life story. A writer who writes an autobiography is like a painter who paints a self-portrait. If you intend to write your autobiography one day, it might be a good idea to start recording notes about your life in a diary. The author Gertrude Stein was being clever when she poked fun at the very idea of autobiography when she wrote her own memoirs but titled them The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, instead of The Autobiography of Gertrude Stein.
Vocabulary lists containing autobiography
Words to Live By: Bio
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Write On!: Graph and Gram
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To Thine Own Self Be True: Auto
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Maya Angelou’s autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was included in the purge; Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was not.
From Salon • May 3, 2026
While still at Real Sociedad in 2013, Griezmann revealed in his autobiography that he came close to joining Arsenal and playing under Arsene Wenger.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
The daily diary is distinct from a formal autobiography.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026
“While a memoir or formal autobiography aims to offer a retrospective story, the diary typically doesn’t, or can’t, because it is written from the middle of an unfolding life.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
But Sullivan laced his 1924 autobiography with hyperbolic attacks on Burnham and the fair’s impact on the masses who came through its gates.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
