bi·og·ra·phy

(bī-ŏg′rə-fē)

n. pl. bi·og·ra·phies

1. An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another: a film biography of Adlai Stevenson; an oral biography.

2. Biographies considered as a group, especially when regarded as a genre.

3. The writing, composition, or production of biographies: a career entirely devoted to biography.

[Late Greek biographiā : Greek bio-, bio- + Greek -graphiā, -graphy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

biography

(baɪˈɒɡrəfɪ)

n, pl -phies

1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) an account of a person's life by another

2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) such accounts collectively

biˈographer n

biographical, ˌbioˈgraphic adj

ˌbioˈgraphically adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bi•og•ra•phy

(baɪˈɒg rə fi, bi-)

n., pl. -phies.

1. a written account of another person's life.

2. an account of the history of an organization, society, etc.

3. such writings collectively.

4. the writing of biography as an occupation.

[1675–85; < Greek biographía. See bio-, -graphy]

biography

The story of a person’s life, recounted by someone else.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

biography - an account of the series of events making up a person's life

life history, life story, life

account, chronicle, history, story - a record or narrative description of past events; "a history of France"; "he gave an inaccurate account of the plot to kill the president"; "the story of exposure to lead"

autobiography - a biography of yourself

hagiography - a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint)

profile - biographical sketch

biography

noun life story, life, record, account, profile, memoir, CV, life history, curriculum vitae an unauthorised biography

Quotations
"Biography is all about cutting people down to size. Getting an unruly quart into a pint pot" [Alan Bennett]
"Biography is: a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified" [José Ortega y Gasset The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays]
"Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory" [Benjamin Disraeli Contarini Fleming]
"Discretion is not the better part of biography" [Lytton Strachey]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

سِيرَةسيرَه، تَرْجَمَة حَياة

životopis

biografilevnedsskildring

elämäkerta

biografijaživotopis

életrajzbiográfia

ævisaga

biografia biografico biografo

伝記

전기

biografasbiografijabiografinis

biogrāfija

životopis

življenjepis

životopis

biografi

อัตชีวประวัติ

yaşam öyküsü biyografi

tiểu sử

传记

biography

[baɪˈɒgrəfɪ] N → biografía f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

biography

[baɪˈɒgrəfi] n → biographie f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

biography

n → Biografie f, → Lebensbeschreibung f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

biography

[baɪˈɒgrəfɪ] n → biografia

biography

(baiˈogrəfi) – plural biˈographies – noun

a written account by someone of another person's life. a biography of Nelson.

biˈographer noun

ˌbioˈgraphic(al) (-ˈgrӕ-) adjective

biography

→ سِيرَة životopis biografi Biografie βιογραφία biografía elämäkerta biographie biografija biografia 伝記 전기 biografie biografi biografia biografia биография biografi อัตชีวประวัติ yaşam öyküsü tiểu sử 传记

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

In Lecture V we found reason to think that the ultimate constituents* of the world do not have the characteristics of either mind or matter as ordinarily understood: they are not solid persistent objects moving through space, nor are they fragments of "consciousness." But we found two ways of grouping particulars, one into "things" or "pieces of matter," the other into series of "perspectives," each series being what may be called a "biography." Before we can define either sensations or images, it is necessary to consider this twofold classification in somewhat greater detail, and to derive from it a definition of perception.

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Robert Strickland's innocent biography that it is difficult to avoid feeling a certain sympathy for the unlucky parson.

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One finds them at the tops of professions, with letters after their names; they sit in luxurious public offices, with private secretaries attached to them; they write solid books in dark covers, issued by the presses of the two great universities, and when one of them dies the chances are that another of them writes his biography.

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Though Levin was not interested in the biography, he could not help listening, and learned some new and interesting facts about the life of the distinguished man of science.

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Biography and exploration were her favourite reading, for choice the biography of men who had been good to their mothers, and she liked the explorers to be alive so that she could shudder at the thought of their venturing forth again; but though she expressed a hope that they would have the sense to stay at home henceforth, she gleamed with admiration when they disappointed her.

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Those who can read German will find an excellent guide, in this respect, in Frau Foerster-Nietzsche's exhaustive and highly interesting biography of her brother: "Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsche's" (published by Naumann); while the works of Deussen, Raoul Richter, and Baroness Isabelle von Unger- Sternberg, will be found to throw useful and necessary light upon many questions which it would be difficult for a sister to touch upon.

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The historians, replying to this question, lay before us the sayings and doings of a few dozen men in a building in the city of Paris, calling these sayings and doings "the Revolution"; then they give a detailed biography of Napoleon and of certain people favorable or hostile to him; tell of the influence some of these people had on others, and say: that is why this movement took place and those are its laws.

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For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any age or country.

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This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so far to its primary basis, when a man's biography is conveyed in his gift, and every man's wealth is an index of his merit.

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Browning's poems; and he has added an excellent biography.

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To be sure, Roy wrote twice a week; his letters were exquisite compositions which would have read beautifully in a memoir or biography. Anne felt herself more deeply in love with him than ever when she read them; but her heart never gave the queer, quick, painful bound at sight of his letters which it had given one day when Mrs.

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Not long since she published a biography of her deceased husband.

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