biography

B1 Topic:People & Society
US /baɪˈɑɡɹəfi/ UK /baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/
noun verb Freq #16485

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    The written story of a person's life.

    She wrote a fascinating biography of Abraham Lincoln.

  2. 2
    noun

    The kind of writing that tells people's life stories.

    He has spent his whole career working in biography.

  3. 3
    verb

    To write the life story of someone.

    Several historians have tried to biography the famous queen.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · the written story of a... life
Word family
Forms biographies
Derived forms antibiographyautobiographybiographeebiographettebiographizebiomythographyblogographyheterobiographyminibiographyosteobiographyphotobiographypsychobiography
Related forms biographerbiographicalbiographismhagiographypathography

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-der. Ancient Greek βῐ́ος (bĭ́os) Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek γραφή (graphḗ) Ancient Greek -γρᾰφῐ́ᾱ (-grăphĭ́ā) Ancient Greek βιογραφίᾱ (biographíā)der. New Latin biographiabor. English biography Borrowed from New Latin biographia, from Ancient Greek βιογραφίᾱ (biographíā), from βῐ́ος (bĭ́os, “life”) + -γρᾰφῐ́ᾱ (-grăphĭ́ā, “writing”).

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