memoir

English

Etymology

From French mémoire (“memoir”), from Latin memoria (“memory”); see memory.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛmˌwɑɹ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛmˌɔɪɚ/
• Hyphenation: mem‧oir

Noun

memoir (plural memoirs)

1. An autobiography; a book describing the personal experiences of an author.

   When I retire, I'm going to write my memoirs.

2. A biography; a book describing the experiences of a subject from personal knowledge of the subject or from sources with personal knowledge of the subject.

   James wrote a memoir of his grandmother shortly after she passed away.

3. Any form of narrative describing the personal experiences of a writer.

Usage notes

A memoir may differ from a simple biography or autobiography by not focusing on the author as the primary subject matter, but on people and events in the subject's life. Emphasis is placed on personal observations about external events.

The plural memoirs is often used to refer to a single work.

Related terms

• memory

Translations

book describing the personal experiences of an author

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: հուշագրություն (hy) (hušagrutʻyun), հուշեր pl (hušer)
• Azerbaijani: xatirələr, xatirat, memuarlar
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 回憶錄／回忆录 (zh) (huíyìlù), 回忆录 (zh) (huíyìlù)

• Czech: paměti (cs) f pl
• Estonian: mälestusteraamat, elulugu, memuaarid pl
• Finnish: muistelmat pl, muistelmateos
• French: mémoires (fr) m pl
• German: Memoiren (de) f pl, Lebenserinnerungen f pl
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὑπμνήματα n pl (hupmnḗmata)

• Hungarian: memoár (hu), emlékirat (hu)
• Italian: memorie (it) f pl
• Japanese: 回想録 (かいそうろく, kaisōroku), 回顧録 (かいころく, kaikoroku)
• Korean: 회상록 (ko) (hoesangnok), 회고록 (ko) (hoegorok)
• Latvian: memuāri (lv) pl
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: memuarai m pl
• Maori: kupu whakamahara
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: (memoirs) memoarer pl

  Nynorsk: (memoirs) memoarar pl

• Polish: pamiętnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: memória (pt) f
• Russian: мемуа́ры (ru) m pl (memuáry)
• Spanish: memoria (es)
• Swahili: kumbukumbu (sw)
• Swedish: minne (sv) n
• Tagalog: talang-gunita, talanggunita, talang-alaala
• Turkish: hatırat (tr), andaç (tr)
• Ukrainian: мемуа́ри m pl (memuáry)
• Vietnamese: hồi ký (vi), luận văn (vi)
• Yiddish: מעמואַרן f pl (memuarn)

any form of narrative describing the personal experiences of a writer

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: muistelma (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: kupu whakamahara
• Russian: мемуа́ры (ru) m pl (memuáry)
• Turkish: hatırat (tr), andaç (tr)

References

• “memoir”, in Collins English Dictionary; from Michael Agnes, editor, Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th edition, Cleveland, Oh.: Wiley, 2010, →ISBN.
• “memoir”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “memoir”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “memoir”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• John Walker (1824) A critical pronouncing dictionary‎^[1], page 385

Further reading

• memoir on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “memoir”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• momier