biography
Americannoun
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biographies
plural
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a written account of another person's life.
the biography of Byron by Marchand.
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an account in biographical form of an organization, society, theater, animal, etc.
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such writings collectively.
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the writing of biography as an occupation or field of endeavor.
noun
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an account of a person's life by another
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such accounts collectively
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of biography
From the Greek word biographía, dating back to 1675–85. See bio-, -graphy
Explanation
A biography is an account of somebody's life written by somebody else, complete with details of the most important parts. These days, anyone, of any age, can be the subject of a biography: Justin Bieber, at the tender age of 17, had one written about his life. A biography is not to be confused with an autobiography, an account of someone's life written by the subject himself. You'll find biographies in printed form (remember books?), but also increasingly in the form of e-books, TV dramatizations, and cinematic "bio-docs."
Vocabulary lists containing biography
Words to Live By: Bio
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Write On!: Graph and Gram
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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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.
See Examples For:
According to a biography on his official website, his father was a mechanical engineer, and his mother had been a dancer before becoming a nurse during the war.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
He previously served as the deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections and spent 30 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to his biography.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
Born on July 9, 1935, in Grand Roy, Grenada, Slinger moved with his family to Trinidad when he was 1 year old, according to his official biography.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
And I know there’s no James Boswell coming to write my biography.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
I had the idea that I’d write a book that was a biography of both the cells and the woman they came from—someone’s daughter, wife, and mother.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
As well as "Succession", the five-times married tycoon has been the subject of a spate of biographies, as well as a new Netflix documentary, "Dynasty: The Murdochs" which was released in March this year.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
The book offers capsule biographies of the game’s young stars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
He published a number of autobiographical books, as well as biographies of John Wesley and William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the Salvation Army.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
Anna Arno, who has written biographies of the German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Polish activist Konstanty Jeleński, meets that challenge in “Paul Celan: A Life.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
She came home from the Welch public library every week or two with a pillowcase full of novels, biographies, and histories.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
