autobiography

autobiography — noun

1. a book in which the author tells the story of their own life, usually covering c

1.nounB2
Definition

a book in which the author tells the story of their own life, usually covering childhood, important events, and personal experiences.

Example

Michelle Obama's autobiography sold millions of copies during its first year in print.

[person]'s autobiography sold/published

In his autobiography, the chef describes growing up poor in a small village in Italy.

in [one's] autobiography, [person] describes/recalls

Common collocations
  • write an autobiography
  • publish an autobiography
  • in his/her autobiography
  • ghostwritten autobiography
  • candid autobiography
  • bestselling autobiography
Synonyms
  • memoir

    more focused on a specific period or theme of the writer's life rather than the whole life

  • life story

    informal and broader; can be told orally or in writing, not necessarily a published book

  • personal history

    neutral and slightly formal; emphasises the factual record of one's life

Antonyms
  • biography

    written by someone else about the subject's life

Grammar Patterns

autobiography of [person]

in [one's] autobiography

Usage Note

Subject is usually a well-known person — politicians, athletes, artists, business leaders. The book is typically titled 'My Life,' 'The Autobiography of…,' or similar. Distinguish from biography (sense covered by another lemma): a biography is written ABOUT someone by another author, while an autobiography is written BY the person themselves.

Common Mistakes

She wrote an autobiography of her grandfather.
She wrote a biography of her grandfather.
an autobiography is always about the writer themselves, not about another person.
His autobiography was written by a journalist.
His biography was written by a journalist.' or 'He worked with a journalist on his autobiography.
when another author writes the book, it is a biography or a ghostwritten autobiography.

2. the branch of literature that deals with people writing about their own lives, s

2.nounC1
Definition

the branch of literature that deals with people writing about their own lives, studied as a writing form and genre.

Example

Professor Lin teaches a popular course on women's autobiography at the university.

a course in/on autobiography (uncountable)

Autobiography became a respected literary form during the eighteenth century in Europe.

autobiography as a genre/form

Common collocations
  • the genre of autobiography
  • study autobiography
  • modern autobiography
  • literary autobiography
Synonyms
  • life writing

    broader academic term covering autobiography, memoir, diaries, and letters

  • self-narrative

    technical term used in literary theory and psychology

Grammar Patterns

a course in autobiography

the genre of autobiography

Usage Note

Used as an uncountable noun referring to the genre, not a specific book. Distinguish from sense 1 by the absence of an article and by context: academic, literary, or historical discussion of the writing form rather than a particular volume.

Common Mistakes

She is interested in an autobiography as a genre.
She is interested in autobiography as a genre.
when referring to the genre, no article is used.

Word family

  • autobiographies
    nounB2
  • autobiographer
    nounC1
  • autobiographical
    adjectiveC1
  • autobiographically
    adverbC2
  • biography
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

An autobiography covers the whole arc of a person's life, written by that person, and aims to give a complete record from childhood to the present. A memoir is narrower: the same first-person voice, but focused on one period, theme, or relationship — for example, a year of grief or a career in politics. A biography is the outsider's version: another writer researches and tells someone else's life story, often after the subject has died. A diary is private and dated, written day by day with no overall shape. So a politician retiring at 70 might publish an autobiography; a chef describing only her three years in Paris would write a memoir; a historian researching Lincoln writes a biography; a teenager records daily thoughts in a diary.

autobiography ↗memoir ↗biography ↗diary ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • autobiography excerpt
  • autobiography chapter
  • autobiography draft

Phrases

  • write an autobiography
  • publish an autobiography
  • ghostwritten autobiography
  • according to his/her autobiography

Prepositions

  • in [one's] autobiography
  • of [person]

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Built from three Greek parts: 'auto' meaning self, 'bio' meaning life, and 'graphia' meaning writing — literally 'self-life-writing.' The English word first appeared in the late 1700s, blending the older term 'biography' (which entered English from Greek through Latin in the 1600s) with the prefix 'auto-' that scholars liked for new technical words. Before this single word existed, writers used phrases like 'memoirs of his own life.'