biography

English

Etymology

From New Latin biographia, formed from Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /baɪˈɑɡɹəfi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒɡɹəfi

Noun

biography (countable and uncountable, plural biographies)

1. A person's life story, especially one published.

   There are many biographies of Benjamin Franklin.

2. The art of writing this kind of story.

Derived terms

• autobiography
• heterobiography
• psychobiography

Related terms

• biographer
• biographical
• biographism
• hagiography
• pathography

Translations

personal life story

• Albanian: biografi (sq)
• Arabic: سِيرَة f (sīra), تَرْجَمَةُ ٱلْحَيَاةِ f (tarjamatu l-ḥayāti)
• Armenian: կենսագրություն (hy) (kensagrutʻyun)
• Asturian: biografía f
• Azerbaijani: bioqrafiya, tərcümeyi-hal
• Belarusian: біягра́фія f (bijahráfija)
• Bulgarian: биогра́фия (bg) f (biográfija), животопи́с (bg) m (životopís)
• Catalan: biografia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 傳記／传记 (zh) (zhuànjì)

• Coptic: ⲃⲓⲟⲥ m (bios)
• Czech: životopis (cs) m
• Danish: biografi (da) c
• Dutch: biografie (nl) f
• Esperanto: biografio
• Estonian: elulugu, biograafia
• Faroese: ævisøga f
• Finnish: elämäkerta (fi)
• French: biographie (fr) f
• Galician: biografía (gl) f
• Georgian: ბიოგრაფია (biograpia)
• German: Biografie (de) f, (old spelling) Biographie (de) f
• Greek: βιογραφία (el) f (viografía)
• Haitian Creole: biyografi
• Hebrew: קורות חיים (he) f pl (korót khayím), סיפור חיים m (sipúr khayím), ביוגרפיה (he) f (biyográfya)
• Hindi: जीवनी (hi) f (jīvnī), जीवनकथा f (jīvnakthā), ज़िंदगीनामा m (zindgīnāmā)
• Hungarian: életrajz (hu), biográfia (hu)
• Indonesian: biografi (id)
• Irish: beathaisnéis f
• Italian: biografia (it) f
• Japanese: 伝記 (ja) (でんき, denki)
• Kalmyk: намтр (namtr)
• Korean: 전기(傳記) (ko) (jeon'gi)
• Kyrgyz: өмүрбаян (ömürbayan)
• Lao: ຊີວະປະຫວັດ (lo) (sī wa pa wat)
• Latin: curriculum vitae n, biographia f
• Latvian: biogrāfija f
• Lithuanian: biografija (lt) f
• Macedonian: биографија f (biografija), животопис m (životopis)
• Maori: kōrero haurongo, kōrero koiora, haurongo
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: намтар (mn) (namtar), чадиг (čadig)

  Mongolian: ᠨᠠᠮᠲᠠᠷ (namtar), ᠴᠠᠳᠢᠭ (čadig)

• Nepali: जीवनी (jīvanī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: biografi (no) m

  Nynorsk: biografi m

• Occitan: biografia (oc) f
• Persian: زندگی‌نامه (zendegi-nâme)
• Polish: biografia (pl) f
• Portuguese: biografia (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਜੀਵਨੀ f (jīvnī)
• Romanian: biografie (ro) f
• Russian: биогра́фия (ru) f (biográfija), (rare) жизнеописа́ние (ru) n (žizneopisánije)
• Scottish Gaelic: beath-eachdraidh f, eachdraidh-beatha f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: животопис m, биографија f

  Roman: životopis (sh) m, biografija (sh) f

• Slovak: životopis m
• Slovene: življenjepis (sl) m, biografija f
• Spanish: biografía (es) f
• Swedish: biografi (sv) c
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: ชีวประวัติ (th) (chii-wá-bprà-wàt)
• Turkish: biyografi (tr), yaşamöyküsü (tr)
• Ukrainian: біогра́фія (uk) f (biohráfija), життє́пис m (žyttjépys)
• Uyghur: تەرجىمەھال (terjimehal)
• Vietnamese: tiểu sử (vi)
• Welsh: cofiant m, bywgraffiad m
• Yiddish: ביאָגראַפֿיע f (byografye)

Verb

biography (third-person singular simple present biographies, present participle biographying, simple past and past participle biographied)

1. (transitive) To write a biography of.

Anagrams

• ribophagy