Autobiography

Definition: Autobiography

Autobiography

Noun

1. A biography of yourself.

Date "autobiography" was first used: 1809. (references)

Note: Autobiography \Au`to*bi*og"ra*phy\, noun; plural Autobiographies. [Auto- biography.]. (Websters 1913)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Description	Historiography, chronography; historic Muse, Clio; history; biography, autobiography; necrology, obituary.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

In a sense, autobiography is a form of biography, the writing of a life story. The difference, of course, is point of view: an autobiography is from the viewpoint of its subject. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography may be based entirely on the writer's memory.

A memoir is slightly different from an autobiography. Where an autobiography focuses on the "life and times" of the character, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on his or her own memories, feelings and emotions.

For example, the autobiography of a Civil War general might include sections on the nature of slavery, the origins of the Civil War, and the political career of Abraham Lincoln. But the memoir of a Civil War general would focus on his personal reasons for joining the battle, the effect of the war on his mind and soul, and the joy and fear he felt on the battlefield.

Memoirs are often based on old diaries, letters, and photographs.

Until the last 20 years or so, few people without some degree of fame tried to write and publish a memoir. But with the critical and commercial success of such memoirs as "Angela's Ashes" and "The Color of Water," more and more people have been encouraged to try their hand at this genre.

Crosswords: Autobiography

English words defined with "autobiography": autobiographic, autobiographical, Autobiographies ♦ Frank Harris ♦ Harris ♦ James Thomas Harris. (references)

Specialty definitions using "autobiography": Blood of the Grograms ♦ DIARY, Dock-side Lumper ♦ Glory Demon, Greenlandman's Galley ♦ Johnny Raw ♦ Make the Ice ♦ Poor Tassel. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	George Grosz: An Autobiography (reference) Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (reference) Summing Up: An Autobiography (reference) The petticoat dominant, or, Woman's revenge : the autobiography of a young nobleman as a pendant to Gynecocracy (reference) Working lives : a people's autobiography of Hackney (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography (reference) The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (reference) Autobiography of a Hopi (reference) Autobiography of a Yogi (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Cannon & Flowers: An Autobiography in Performance (reference) (Blacktrash) The Autobiography of Kirk Jones [EXPLICIT LYRICS] (reference) Cheap Drunk: An Autobiography (reference) Songs from the Girl Singer: A Musical Autobiography (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Oscar Wilde	A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
Quentin Crisp	An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing.
Steven Wright	I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Egypt	Confiscated works included poetry by Lebanese poet Joseph Harb, two novels and an autobiography by Egyptian feminist Nawal al-Sa'adawi, "Crazy Stories," by Egyptian author Yehia Ibrahim, three works ("The Tent," "The Naked Bread," and "al-Shutar") by Moroccan author Mohammed Shukri, "The Merciful and the Devil," by Syrian author Firas al-Sawah, "Politics between the Permitted and the Forbidden," by Saudi Arabian author Turki Hamad, two works ("Fear of Modernism" and "Are you Shielded from the Harem?") by Moroccan feminist Fatma al-Mernissi, and "A Banquet for Seaweed," by Syrian author Haidar Haidar. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Autobiography" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Autobiography" is used about 422 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	422	13,494

Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "autobiography": cookbook-come-autobiography, pseudo-autobiography, semi-autobiography, verse-autobiography.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "autobiography"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		autobiografi (memoir). (various references)

Arabic		‏قصة حياة الكاتب بقلمه, ‏السيرة ذاتية. (various references)

Bulgarian		автобиография (curriculum vitae). (various references)

Chinese		自� (Autobiographies, Biographic, Biographical). (various references)

Czech		autobiografie. (various references)

Danish		autobiografi, selvbiografi. (various references)

Dutch		autobiografie. (various references)

Esperanto		aŭtobiografio. (various references)

Farsi		نگارش شرح زندگی شخصی بوسیله ء خوداو, خودزیستنامه , خودزندگی نامه . (various references)

Finnish		omaelämäkerta, oma elämäkerta. (various references)

French		autobiographie. (various references)

German		autobiographie, Selbstbiographie. (various references)

Greek		αυτοβιογραφία. (various references)

Hebrew		אוטוביו�'רפי�". (various references)

Hungarian		önéletrajz (curriculum vitae, cv). (various references)

Indonesian		autobiografi, riwayat hidup (biography, curriculvitae, memoir). (various references)

Italian		autobiografia. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		自叙伝 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		オートバイオグラフィー , じで�", じじょで�", じじょ (authors preface, boys and girls, lady attendant, maid, order, second daughter, self-help, system, thou, you). (various references)

Korean		자서� � (Autobiographic, Autobiographical, Autobiographies). (various references)

Manx		hene-veashnys. (various references)

Pig Latin		autobiographyay

Portuguese		autobiografia (memoir). (various references)

Romanian		autobiografie (background). (various references)

Russian		автобиография. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		autobiografija (memoir). (various references)

Spanish		autobiografía (memoir). (various references)

Swedish		självbiografi. (various references)

Thai		อัตชีวประวัติ (biography). (various references)

Turkish		otobiyografi, kendi hayat hikâyesi, özyaşamöyküsü, özgeçmiş (background, curriculum vitae, profile, resume). (various references)

Ukrainian		автобіографія. (various references)

Vietnamese		sự viết tự truyện tự truyện. (various references)

Welsh		hunan.gofiant. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	autos. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Misspellings
	"Autobiography" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ateriography, autobiog, autobiogaphy, autobiograph. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "autobiography" (pronounced ô'tubīÄ"grufē)
8	-b ī Ä" g r u f ē	biography.
6	-Ä" g r u f ē	astrophotography, bibliography, choreography, chromatography, cinematography, crystallography, demography, geography, hagiography, historiography, iconography, lithography, mammography, oceanography, orthography, photography, phytogeography, polarography, pornography, radiography, topography, typography.
5	-g r u f ē	calligraphy, discography.
4	-r u f ē	apostrophe, atrophy, catastrophe, dystrophy.
3	-u f ē	philosophy.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-b-g-h-i-o-o-p-r-t-u-y"
	-3 letters: autography.
	-4 letters: autograph, biography.
	-5 letters: atrophia, autogiro, autogyro, boughpot, obituary, rubaiyat, uropygia, yoghourt.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-b-g-h-i-o-o-p-r-t-u-y"
	+5 letters: autobiographically.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
autobiography	710	autobiography gregory peck	9
write an autobiography	130	autobiography of ben franklin	9
writing an autobiography	103	autobiography davis terrell	8
autobiography its late now too	67	autobiography jr king luther martin	8
autobiography harts moss	51	bill gate autobiography	8
autobiography hart moss	49	autobiography free	8
autobiography sample	46	autobiography douglass frederick	7
malcolm x autobiography	34	autobiography format writing	7
autobiography example	31	autobiography manson marilyn	7
autobiography of a flea	26	autobiography student	7
autobiography of benjamin franklin	26	autobiography jackson michael	7
autobiography of a yogi	19	write and publish an autobiography	7
autobiography of miss jane pittman	17	autobiography jennifer lopez	6
the autobiography of an ex colored man	11	autobiography clinton hilary	6
autobiography of malcom x	10	autobiography of a face	6
autobiography clinton hillary	10	50 autobiography cent	6
michael jordan autobiography	10	autobiography template	6
mark twain autobiography	9	autobiography martha stewart	6
autobiography format	9	autobiography brinkley david	6
angelou autobiography maya	9	autobiography tupac	6
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Autobiography

Definition: Autobiography

Autobiography

Noun

Synonyms within Context: Autobiography

Description

Specialty Definition: Autobiography

Crosswords: Autobiography

Modern Usage: Autobiography

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Autobiography

Books

Theater & Movies

Music

Familiar Quotations: Autobiography

Oscar Wilde

Quentin Crisp

Steven Wright

Non-Fiction Usage: Autobiography

Usage Frequency: Autobiography

Expressions: Autobiography

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Autobiography

Modern Translation: Autobiography

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Ancestral Language Translations: Autobiography

Misspellings: Autobiography

Misspellings

Rhyming with "Autobiography"

Anagrams: Autobiography

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

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