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Glite Dictionary
🎬 An early film 📽️ An old projector 📷 An old camera
biograph

biograph

1 9.9
An early short film shown on old movie projectors
  • noun
  • /ˈbaɪəɡræf/
  • Archaic
translation icon : biografía
  • Audiences were amazed by the moving images in the first biograph they ever saw.

Examples

  • Many silent films were shown in a biograph theater.

  • The museum displayed a restored biograph from the early days of cinema.

  • Historians study the biograph to understand how film technology developed.

  • The biograph was a fascinating glimpse into early cinema.

  • In the 1900s, many people enjoyed a show at the local biograph where they watched short films made with early projection techniques.

  • The old biograph theater brought back memories of the silent film era, captivating audiences with its vintage charm.

  • Although the film was short, it showcased remarkable creativity typical of a biograph from the early 20th century.

Synonyms

film
vsbiograph
∞ 1.0

A story shown as moving images in a cinema or on screen

is more general and not restricted to early antique screenings
photoplay
vsbiograph
  • Archaic
1 9.9

An old word for a movie from the early days of film

is specifically an early short shown with late 19th or early 20th century projectors

Surface Forms

biograph singular
biographs plural

Morphology

biograph = graph (opaque) = bio + graph

Although the form can be parsed as bio + graph, the early-cinema meaning is a historical name whose sense is not recoverable for most learners from those parts.

Etymology

Biograph comes from the Greek parts bio- ('life') and -graph ('to write' or 'record'), just like the word biography. So a biograph film is like a 'writing of life' — an early short movie that records people and action on screen.