noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

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

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

2. 2
   an essay on a scientific or scholarly topic wordnet
3. 3
   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."

4. 4
   an account of the author's personal experiences wordnet
5. 5
   Any form of narrative describing the personal experiences of a writer.

Synonyms

All synonyms

accountaccountsadventureadventuresadversariaaide-memoire

Example

More examples

"The memoir breathes the deepest respect for his father."

Etymology

From French mémoire (“memoir”), from Latin memoria (“memory”). Doublet of memoria and memory.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.