biopic
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of biopic
1950–55; bio(graphy) + (motion) pic(ture)
Explanation
A biopic is a fictional film that's based on a true story of a famous person. If you develop a cure for cancer or get elected president, someone may make a biopic about you one day! Biopic is a shorthand term for biographical (moving) picture that's been around since the 1950s. Some of these films stick very closely to the biography of their subject, in an attempt to tell a true story of a real person. Others take great liberties with the biographical details in order to make a more interesting plot. Either way, if you like movies about historical figures, movie stars, and sports legends, you should check out some biopics!
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:
A 1929 Hollywood biopic starring George Arliss helped turn Disraeli into a figure of cultural visibility beyond Britain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Take this spring’s Michael Jackson biopic, a film that purged Jackson of all of his eccentricities in an attempt to downplay the allegations that clouded his late career.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Michael was already the biggest ever musical biopic, having leapfrogged 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody - about the band Queen.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
The biopic “Michael” set a new box-office record when it opened in April.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
As luck would have it, though, the only English-language film being shown in Belgrade was Lust for Life, the lush biopic of the mad nineteenth-century Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Today’s musician biopics are almost always overly sanitized stories approved by the artist or their estate.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
“Michael” went on to shatter box-office records for biopics, raking in almost $220 million worldwide during its first opening weekend.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
“Michael” earned around $218 million opening weekend, handily beating past music films and even general-interest biopics like “Oppenheimer.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
She compared Michael to other recent music biopics, commenting that "the line between 'cinema' and 'merchandise' has come close to being obliterated".
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Most rock biopics have a similar rise-and-fall-and-rise arc; it’s a cliché that works, like plugging “Sweet Caroline” into a bar’s jukebox.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025
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.
