autobiography

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an account of a person's life written by that person

   In her autobiography, the scientist describes the experiments that shaped her career.

2. 2
   noun

   autobiographical writing considered as a literary genre

   The course examines autobiography as a form that blends memory, history, and self-interpretation.

Formed from Greek-derived elements auto-, self, bio-, life, and -graphy, writing. The compound appeared in English around the turn of the nineteenth century for a life written by its own subject, in contrast with a biography written by someone else.

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