biography

biography — noun

1. a book or article in which one author tells the true story of another real perso

1.nounB1
Definition

a book or article in which one author tells the true story of another real person — describing their family, work, choices, and the events that shaped them.

Example

Viraj borrowed a biography of Marie Curie from the school library yesterday.

pattern: a biography of [person]

The new biography of Steve Jobs was written by his close friend.

pattern: biography of X written by Y

Common collocations
  • read a biography
  • write a biography
  • publish a biography
  • an authorised biography
  • an unauthorised biography
Synonyms
  • life story

    more informal; spoken use

  • memoir

    usually written by the subject themselves and covers selected memories, not a full life

  • profile

    much shorter than a biography, often a single magazine article

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

a biography of [person]

biography by [author]

Usage Note

Always written about a real person by someone else. Distinguish from sense 2 (the genre as a whole) and from 'autobiography' (the subject writes their own life).

Common Mistakes

I am writing a biography about my own life.
I am writing an autobiography about my own life.
a biography is written by someone else; if you tell your own story, it's an autobiography.
She read the biography of her cat.
She read a biography of Albert Einstein.
biographies are about real human beings, not pets or objects.

2. the type of literature that tells the true life stories of real people, treated

2.nounB2
Definition

the type of literature that tells the true life stories of real people, treated as a single category of books or studies.

Example

Imani teaches a university course on biography and travel writing.

uncountable: no article, treated as a genre

The bookshop on Park Street has a large section devoted to biography.

uncountable use after 'devoted to'

Common collocations
  • a course on biography
  • modern biography
  • literary biography
  • the biography section
Synonyms
  • life writing

    academic term covering biography, memoir, and autobiography together

  • non-fiction

    much wider — includes science, history, travel writing, not only life stories

Antonyms
  • fiction

    stories about made-up people and events

Grammar Patterns

[determiner] biography (as a category)

Usage Note

Uncountable in this sense — no article, no plural. Distinguish from sense 1 (a single book): you say 'I love biography' (the genre) but 'I read a biography of Picasso' (one book).

Common Mistakes

She studies biographies as a genre.
She studies biography as a genre.
when referring to the whole category, use the uncountable singular form.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe accounts of a real person's life, but they differ in who writes them and how much they cover. A biography is written about someone by another author and usually aims to cover the whole life from birth to death or to the present day. An autobiography covers the same ground, but the subject is the writer — 'auto-' meaning 'self'. A memoir is also written by the subject, yet it focuses on selected periods, themes, or relationships rather than a full life timeline. A profile is much shorter, typically a magazine article that introduces a person through one event or interview. So you might read a 600-page biography of Nelson Mandela, his own autobiography 'Long Walk to Freedom', a memoir about his prison years, or a profile in last Sunday's newspaper.

biography ↗autobiography ↗memoir ↗profile ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • biography section
  • biography series
  • biography channel

Phrases

  • authorised biography
  • unauthorised biography
  • official biography
  • definitive biography

Prepositions

  • biography of
  • biography by
  • biography about (less formal)

Etymology

GreekLate LatinEnglish

Biography reached English in the 17th century from late Latin 'biographia', which itself was borrowed from Greek. The Greek root joins 'bios' meaning 'life' and 'graphia' meaning 'writing' — so the word literally means 'life-writing'. The same 'bios' appears in 'biology' and 'biosphere', and the same 'graphia' appears in 'photography' and 'geography'.