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autobiography

autobiography

83 3.8
A book a person writes about their own life
  • noun
  • /ˌɔːtəbaɪˈɒɡrəfi/
translation icon : autobiografía
  • In his heartbreaking autobiography, John Stuart Mill wrote about his inability to "feel" the economy.
  • write an autobiography
  • publish an autobiography
  • entitle an autobiography

So I've got a title for My Autobiography Shaved by a Stranger.

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Examples

  • I read her autobiography.

  • And my brother gave me Mike Tyson's autobiography for Christmas last year.

  • It's your autobiography, published by Jones.

  • I have a title for your autobiography.

  • I signed a contract for an autobiography.

  • Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography.

  • I've got an autobiography coming out and I need a bit of publicity.

  • I have not spent many sleepless nights," she writes in her autobiography, "but that one was sleepless.

    Academic text (1993)
  • His most recent book is his autobiography, Drosophila oder die Versuchung.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Her autobiography, titled "A Life Untold," shares her experiences growing up in a small town.

Synonyms

memoir
vsautobiography
168 4.9

A true story someone writes about events from their own life

covers a whole life rather than a few selected experiences

How Personal

memoir
168 4.9
autobiography
83 3.8
biography
188 2.6

Surface Forms

autobiography singular

Morphology

autobiography = biography (transparent) = auto + bio + graphy

The word is transparently formed by adding auto- meaning 'self' to biography, so it means a biography written by the person themselves.

Etymology

Autobiography comes from three parts: auto- meaning 'self', bio- meaning 'life', and -graphy meaning 'writing', as you see in words like biology and autograph. So an autobiography is simply a person 'writing' the story of their own 'life'.