biographical
Americanadjective
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of or relating to a person's life.
He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
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pertaining to or containing biography.
a biographical dictionary.
Other Word Forms
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nonbiographicaladjective
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pseudobiographicadjective
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pseudobiographicaladjective
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quasi-biographicaladjective
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semibiographicadjective
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semibiographicaladjective
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unbiographicaladjective
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biographicallyadverb
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nonbiographicallyadverb
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pseudobiographicallyadverb
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quasi-biographicallyadverb
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semibiographicallyadverb
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unbiographicallyadverb
Etymology
Origin of biographical
First recorded in 1730–40; biograph(y) + -ical
Explanation
Anything biographical has to do with the story of someone's life. If you're reading a biography of Margaret Mead, you might enjoy learning biographical details, like that she was the oldest of five children. A biography is a book about someone's life. Anything biographical can be from a biography, as in an actual book about someone, or just facts from a person’s life. Biographical information could be where someone is from, where they grew up, where they went to college, or when they became famous. Biographies are usually written about famous people, but everyone has biographical details about their own lives, too.
Vocabulary lists containing biographical
Words to Live By: Bio
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Literary Terms, Grade 6, Unit 1
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List 6
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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.
For months after the attacks, the New York Times ran short biographical sketches of the victims—firefighters, flight attendants, bankers, restaurant workers, Pentagon employees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The novel is about as stark and stripped of biographical details as a Samuel Beckett story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
The case's notoriety still follows Knox; since Kercher's death, Knox has written two books about her imprisonment and served as an executive producer on the biographical drama The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
And Netflix recently greenlighted “The 99’ers,” a biographical drama about the U.S.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
Naively I thought that he himself would make a good model for a biographical sketch.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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.
