autobiography

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew

Proto-Indo-European *tó-

Proto-Hellenic *autós

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder.

Ancient Greek αὖ (aû)

Ancient Greek τόν (tón)

Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós)

Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-)lbor.

English auto-

Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-der.

Ancient Greek βίος (bíos)

Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ-

Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō

Ancient Greek γρᾰ́φω (grắphō)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Hellenic *-ā́

Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā)

Ancient Greek -η (-ē)

Ancient Greek γραφή (graphḗ)

Ancient Greek -γραφία (-graphía)

Ancient Greek βιογραφίᾱ (biographíā)der.

New Latin biographiabor.

English biography

English autobiography

From auto- + biography.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔː.tə.baɪˈɒɡ.ɹə.fi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒɡɹəfi

Noun

autobiography (countable and uncountable, plural autobiographies)

2. (countable) A self-written biography; the story of one's own life.
   • 1904, Mark Twain, “To W. D. Howells, in New York: Villa di Quarto, Florence, March 14, ’04”, in Albert Bigelow Paine, editor, Mark Twain's Letters, volume 2, published 1917, page 751:

     Autobiography […] inevitably consists mainly of extinctions of the truth, shirkings of the truth, partial revealments of the truth, with hardly an instance of plain straight truth […]

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XI:

     Here I was interrupted, as I'm so often interrupted when giving my views on the Yeoman's Wedding Song, by her saying that she was dying to hear all about it but would rather wait till she could get it in my autobiography.

3. (uncountable) Biographies of this kind regarded as a literary genre.

Synonyms

• memoir
• life story

Antonyms

• heterobiography

Hypernyms

• biography

Derived terms

• autobiografiction
• autobiografictional
• autobiographer
• autobiographical
• autobiographically
• autobiographism
• autofiction
• pseudo-autobiography
• semiautobiography

Related terms

• biography

Translations

biography of oneself

• Albanian: autobiografi (sq)
• Amharic: የራስ የሕይወት ታሪክ m (yäras yäḥyəwät tarik)
• Arabic: سِيرَة ذَاتِيَّة f (sīra(t) ḏātiyya)
• Armenian: ինքնակենսագրություն (hy) (inkʻnakensagrutʻyun)
• Asturian: autobiografía (ast) f
• Belarusian: аўтабіягра́фія f (awtabijahráfija)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: автобиогра́фия (bg) f (avtobiográfija)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Carpathian Rusyn: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: autobiografia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 自傳 / 自传 (zi⁶ zyun^6-2)

  Hokkien: 自傳 / 自传 (zh-min-nan) (chū-toān)

  Mandarin: 自傳 / 自传 (zh) (zìzhuàn)

• Czech: vlastní životopis m, autobiografie (cs) f
• Danish: selvbiografi (da) c
• Dutch: autobiografie (nl) f
• Esperanto: aŭtobiografio (eo), membiografio
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: sjálvsævisøga (fo) f
• Finnish: omaelämäkerta (fi)
• French: autobiographie (fr) f
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: autobiografía (gl) f
• Georgian: ავტობიოგრაფია (avṭobiograpia)
• German: Autobiografie (de) f, Selbstbiographie (de) f, Lebenserinnerungen f pl
• Greek: αυτοβιογραφία (el) f (aftoviografía)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hebrew: אוטוביוגרפיה f (ot'obiografia)
• Hindi: आत्मकथा (hi) f (ātmakathā), आपबीती f (āpbītī)
• Hungarian: önéletrajz (hu)
• Hunsrik: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: autobiografi (id)
• Irish: dírbheathaisnéis f
• Italian: autobiografia (it) f
• Japanese: 自伝 (ja) (じでん, jiden), 自叙伝 (ja) (jijoden)
• Kalmyk: эврә намтр (evrä namtr)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kashubian: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 자서전 (ko) (jaseojeon)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: autobiogrāfija f
• Lithuanian: autobiografija f
• Luxembourgish: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: автобиографија f (avtobiografija)
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maltese: awtobijografija (mt)
• Māori: haukiri
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: selvbiografi m

  Nynorsk: sjølvbiografi (nn) m

• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Odia: please add this translation if you can
• Pannonian Rusyn: автобиоґрафия f (avtobiografija)
• Persian: حسب‌حال (hasb-e-hâl)
• Polish: autobiografia (pl) f
• Portuguese: autobiografia (pt) f
• Romanian: autobiografie (ro)
• Russian: автобиогра́фия (ru) f (avtobiográfija)
• Scottish Gaelic: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: аутобиографија f

  Latin: autobiografija (sh) f

• Slovak: vlastný životopis m
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: please add this translation if you can

  Upper Sorbian: awtobiografija f

• Spanish: autobiografía (es) f
• Swahili: tarijama
• Swedish: självbiografi (sv) c
• Tagalog: awtobiyograpiya, saribuhay
• Tajik: please add this translation if you can
• Tamil: தன்வரலாறு (ta) (taṉvaralāṟu), சுயசரிதை (ta) (cuyacaritai)
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: อัตชีวประวัติ (th)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: otobiyografi (tr), özyaşamöyküsü
• Udmurt: асулонсюрес (asulonśures)
• Ukrainian: автобіогра́фія (uk) f (avtobiohráfija)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: tự truyện (vi)
• Volapük: oklifajenäd
• Welsh: hunangofiant m
• Yiddish: אויטאָביאָגראַפֿיע f (oytobyografye)
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• bioautography