biography

/baɪˈɒɡrəfi/ (bre, ipa) · /baɪˈɑːɡrəfi/ (ame, ipa) · /bī-ˈä-grə-fē also bē-/ (ame, mw)

biography — noun

1. a book or article in which one author tells the true story of another real perso

1.名詞B1
釋義

a book or article in which one author tells the true story of another real person — describing their family, work, choices, and the events that shaped them.

例句

Viraj borrowed a biography of Marie Curie from the school library yesterday.

pattern: a biography of [person]

The new biography of Steve Jobs was written by his close friend.

pattern: biography of X written by Y

同義詞
  • life story

    more informal; spoken use

  • memoir

    usually written by the subject themselves and covers selected memories, not a full life

  • profile

    much shorter than a biography, often a single magazine article

反義詞

文法句型

a biography of [person]

biography by [author]

用法筆記

Always written about a real person by someone else. Distinguish from sense 2 (the genre as a whole) and from 'autobiography' (the subject writes their own life).

常見錯誤

❌I am writing a biography about my own life.
✅I am writing an autobiography about my own life.
💡a biography is written by someone else; if you tell your own story, it's an autobiography.
❌She read the biography of her cat.
✅She read a biography of Albert Einstein.
💡biographies are about real human beings, not pets or objects.

2. the type of literature that tells the true life stories of real people, treated

2.名詞B2
釋義

the type of literature that tells the true life stories of real people, treated as a single category of books or studies.

例句

Imani teaches a university course on biography and travel writing.

uncountable: no article, treated as a genre

The bookshop on Park Street has a large section devoted to biography.

uncountable use after 'devoted to'

同義詞
  • life writing

    academic term covering biography, memoir, and autobiography together

  • non-fiction

    much wider — includes science, history, travel writing, not only life stories

反義詞
  • fiction

    stories about made-up people and events

文法句型

[determiner] biography (as a category)

用法筆記

Uncountable in this sense — no article, no plural. Distinguish from sense 1 (a single book): you say 'I love biography' (the genre) but 'I read a biography of Picasso' (one book).

常見錯誤

❌She studies biographies as a genre.
✅She studies biography as a genre.
💡when referring to the whole category, use the uncountable singular form.