super biography meaning

Passion doesn’t always come easily. Discover your inner drive and find your true purpose in life.

From learning how to be your best self to navigating life’s everyday challenges.

Discover peace within today’s chaos. Take a moment to notice what’s happening now.

Gain inspiration from the lives of celebrities. Explore their stories for motivation and insight into achieving your dreams.

Where ordinary people become extraordinary, inspiring us all to make a difference.

Take a break with the most inspirational movies, TV shows, and books we have come across.

From being a better partner to interacting with a coworker, learn how to deepen your connections.

Take a look at the latest diet and exercise trends coming out. So while you're working hard, you're also working smart.

Sleep may be the most powerful tool in our well-being arsenal. So why is it so difficult?

Challenges can stem from distractions, lack of focus, or unclear goals. These strategies can help overcome daily obstacles.

Unlocking your creativity can help every aspect of your life, from innovation to problem-solving to personal growth.

How do you view wealth? Learn new insights, tools and strategies for a better relationship with your money.

10 Super Inspiring Biographies Worth Reading Right Now

Sometimes, we feel alone and hopeless . Well, maybe more than just sometimes.

The world is a big place, and there are billions of people, but somehow we still end up believing that no one understands what we’re going through.

It’s in these moments that connecting with other people on a deeper level allows us to regain hope and optimism for the future. And reading is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Immersing ourselves in inspiring stories and personal accounts of adversity-turned-into-greatness reminds us that what we’re going through is universal and that there’s a way for us to overcome challenges and maybe, just maybe, to realize greatness ourselves as well.

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction -- especially autobiographies and biographies. – Richard Branson

Stories of such greatness can be found about every type of person in every field. Whatever it is that you hope to achieve, there’s a real-life story out there to inspire you.

RELATED:  16 Inspirational Movies on Netflix Worth Watching Right Now

Here are 10 of the most inspiring biographies worth reading right now:

1. A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston

Before Bryan Cranston rose to superstardom as Walter White in Breaking Bad , he played countless offhand roles including Malcolm’s father Hal in Malcolm in the Middle .

A Life in Parts details Cranston’s unlikely rise to stardom and the long journey he had to take to get there, making for an inspiring story with a surprise twist.

Get A Life in Parts here

2. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz

Pour Your Heart Into It is the story of a small Seattle coffee shop, a man with a vision for something more, and the rise of an international mega-chain.

Like several of the books on this list, Pour Your Heart Into It is more than just a biography. In it, Starbucks founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz  shares the critical principles that helped build Starbucks into what it is today.

Get Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time here

3. Eleanor Roosevelt (Volume One and Two) by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Eleanor Roosevelt changed what it meant to be First Lady. She accomplished more within her 12 (yes, 12) years as First Lady than most people accomplish in their entire life.

Eleanor Roosevelt , which is split into two parts, breaks down the incredible life story of the woman who set a standard for all First Ladies after her.

Get Eleanor Roosevelt here

4. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Easily one of my favorite biographies on the list, On Writing is just as much a guide to becoming a master storyteller as it is a memoir of legendary author Stephen King ’s life.

Within the pages of On Writing , King spills some of the most valuable lessons on doing work that matters.

Get On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King here

5. Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a brand in himself, having carved a path doing business his way, as the title of his autobiography suggests. This is more than just a story of business success, it's a tale about daring to be yourself.

Losing My Virginity (never thought I’d write those words in succession) is the story of how Branson turned Virgin from a record label into one of the biggest brands in the world, making it an ideal read for entrepreneurs looking to up their game.

Get Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way here

6. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Long Walk to Freedom tells the important story of anti-apartheid activist and political leader Nelson Mandela and the now-famous events that unfolded during his prison sentence, the apartheid revolution and his eventual rise to victory as the first black president of South Africa.

The book recounts Mandela’s struggles and the wisdom he uncovered along the way, and serves as one of the most inspirational personal stories of victory in the face of injustice ever told.

Get Long Walk to Freedom here

7. Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran is known for her business acumen, and this is the incredible story of how she became one of the most well-known women in American business.

At the age of 23, Corcoran had 22 jobs on her resume. As the story goes, she borrowed $1,000 from her then-boyfriend to start a real estate company in New York City. The book details how she took that $1,000 and turned it into a $6 billion-dollar business.

You also learn how that same persistence helped her nab her seat on ABC’s Shark Tank years later.

Get Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business here

8. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs is the inspiring story of the Apple cofounder who would go on to become the idol of many Silicon Valley founders, designers, and entrepreneurs alike.

It’s based on a collection of interviews over a three-year period in which Isaacson followed Jobs and interviewed virtually everyone in his inner circle to piece together the most complete insight into Jobs’ life ever seen.

Jobs’ unlikely rise to becoming Apple's CEO and the journey that led him to get fired from the very company he co-founded makes this one of the most inspirational comeback stories around.

Get Steve Jobs here

9. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up follows legendary comedian Steve Martin’s life from his childhood in Texas and later California to being a Disneyland employee and, finally, a Hollywood star. It’s a story about sacrifice, persistence, and the virtue of hard work.

If you’re a comedian or performer of any kind, you will find this to be a powerful read.

Get Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin here

10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley was named one of the 10 most important nonfiction books of the 20th century by TIME magazine.

The story of one of the most important and well-known activists in American history is one of a fighter who championed racial equality and stood up for what is right against all odds.

Get The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley here

Hot Stories

Barbers notice little girl running alone - chase after her for this reason, couple elopes in 1964 - 60 years later, husband gives wife her dream wedding, plus-size plane passenger refuses to give up extra seat to toddler - strangers "weigh in", man tries to scam 84-year-old out of $8,000 - she outsmarts him with a clever question, 21-year-old single dad wakes up at midnight to walk to work every day - so his co-workers arrange a special surprise, cop rescues baby abandoned in a box - 24 years later, he learns the truth about the child, boy gives his only dollar to a homeless man - is shocked to learn his true identity.

Boy Gives His Last Dollar to Founder of Wildgame Innovations

Friendships can spark in the least likely places. But when one nine-year-old boy tried to do a good deed on a Good Friday, it was the start of a friendship no one saw coming.

An Unexpected Emergency

Matt Busbice sits with Kelvin Ellis, the nine-year-old who thought he was homeless

WBRZ/YouTube

One early March morning in Baton Rouge, LA, Matthew Busbice woke early to the sound of the fire alarm. He threw on some old boots and rushed outside of his condo complex, where he was relieved to hear that it was a false alarm. Still, the man was up, so he wandered across the street to his usual coffee spot for a cup.

Inside, Busbice ordered a coffee and decided it was a nice enough morning to do his daily prayer outside. He went to the patio, stood in a corner, and closed his eyes while waiting for his order.

Next door, Ellis was waiting for his father to finish up at an optometrist appointment. He saw Busbice standing there with his eyes closed and took him for a homeless man. The kid had a buck in his pocket and realized his chance to make a difference had come. He walked right up to Busbice, who was shocked.

“I’m sitting there, slowly opening my eyes and I see a kid that’s about my height coming at me,” Busbice told WBRZ News . “I open more, and there’s a dollar bill coming at me. I was dumbfounded.”

“I said excuse me sir, are you homeless? Because if you are, here’s a dollar,” Ellis recalled. “He was confused and didn’t know what to do. He didn’t take the dollar bill; I’m not mad about it.”

A Role Reversal

Instead of accepting the money, Busbice offered to buy Ellis breakfast. The boy checked with his father and then returned. He ordered a sandwich and a coffee for his dad, and then he and Ellis started chatting. Soon, an unlikely friendship emerged.

Eventually, Ellis learned that the man he had mistaken for homeless was the co-founder of Wildgame Innovations. He was also launching three new hunting companies and has appeared on reality television. His net worth is an estimated $5 million.

“You’re on Google? You’re that famous?” Ellis asked his new friend when he found out.

For his part, Busbice was touched that this kid was willing to give everything he had to a stranger and wanted to reward him. So, with the news crew in tow, he took his new bud to one of his shops and gave him a shopping spree.

“You gave the only money in your pocket to me, thinking I was a homeless man. That speaks volumes of your character,” Busbice told Ellis. “If [this generation is] more like Kelvin and they’re going to give, they’re going to be filled with joy,” he continued.

“They’re going to be happy, they’re going to change the community, change the parish, change the state, and they’re going to change the world. You have that power; you can do it.”

Now, their story is inspiring others.

“Heart of gold, I hope he never loses that kindness,” one person wrote in the video’s comments. “The fact that this child would go up to someone who he thought was homeless and tried to help him and address him as sir. What a sweet kid!” wrote another.

Others praised Busbice for his humility and called attention to Ellis approaching him mid-prayer.

“The fact that they never would have met if the man didn’t go pray is kinda amazing,” someone pointed out. “The fact Calvin appeared to Matt mid-prayer says so much,” added someone else.

Making a Difference

One of the most uplifting parts of this story is that it reminds you how to be a good human no matter how much money you have. Ellis had a dollar and made a massive difference in Busbice’s life, even though Busbice didn’t accept the money. For his part, Busbice was also inspired to give back and made a lifelong friend.

It’s a nice reminder that anyone can make a difference, so long as you lead with your heart. Thinking of others and trying to do something nice for someone else can go a long way for a person in need, but it can also give you purpose and meaning in your daily life. Whether that’s giving a stranger a couple of dollars for a hot meal or organizing a giant fundraiser, every little bit counts.

Single Dad Lets Daughter Say "Whatever She Wants" — Her Shocking Words Go Viral

Bullies play homecoming prank on boy with autism - so this beauty queen steps in, mom says her kid goes to school in stained clothing - strangers were taken by surprise, groom shaves bride's head on wedding day in front of guests, lamar odom regrets choosing khloe kardashian over taraji p henson, the kardashian redemption - an uncensored documentary, how did betrayal connect jennifer aniston and selena gomez, how tiffany haddish finally found the love she deserved, subscribe to our newsletter, the great takedown of nickelodeon’s dan schneider - how even small voices have the power for impact, chris gardner beyond the pursuit of happyness: the work begins, 100 powerful motivational quotes to help you rise above, wim hof: the iceman’s heroic journey to warming the hearts of millions, fortnite player calls mom and makes shocking announcement on livestream.

Fortnite Gamer Pays Off All of His Mom's Student Loans

Playing Video Games Pays Off in a Big Way

See on Instagram

Aydan Conrad started playing Fortnite , a popular shooting and survival video game, the day it was released in 2017. He immediately became obsessed.

“It was bad," Aydan, then 17 years old, admitted . "I wasn’t doing homework. I was just going to school, chucking my bag, and playing the game until it was time for school again."

Turns out, all those gaming hours paid off.

After convincing his parents to let him take a year off after graduating high school, he kicked his gaming into high gear. He entered tournaments and started winning. A LOT. His YouTube and Twitch channels took off as millions tuned in to watch him play.

Not only did his scores rack up, so did his bank account. And he decided to use some of his hard-earned winnings in the most wholesome way possible — by paying off his mom's expensive college loans.

Crediting his followers for helping to make it happen, he shared the emotional moment he surprised her with the news on one of his livestreams.

(Grab the tissues.)

Young Gamer Changes His Mom's Life

"I paid all of my mom's college loans off so I'm gonna call her and tell her," he starts off telling his 1.4 million viewers. "But I want you guys to know that you guys did this. I wouldn't be able to do it without you guys so pat yourselves on the back."

After getting his mom on the phone he tells her he loves her (awwwww) and that he has a belated Christmas gift for her.

“Let's talk about this later," she responds. "I don’t need anything, Aydan – you’ve done enough for me."

Grinning from ear to ear, Aydan tells her, “Well, it’s too late, Mom. All your school loans are already paid for.”

Hilariously, she doesn't believe him. "No they're not. You can’t… you can’t… It’s not a federal loan. I don’t think you can touch that stuff at all.”

But Aydan's way ahead of her. He tells her that he's already talked to Lina (presumably a financial advisor at the college) and it's a done deal.

"Your school loans are all paid for, you don't have to worry about them."

She immediately bursts into tears. At the sound of his mom crying, Aydan breaks down too.

Not only are her loans paid, but it also means she can graduate sooner. Aydan didn't just give her a monetary gift, he gave her the gift to pursue her dreams without the weight of financial constraints. And that? Is priceless.

His mom ends the call by jokingly telling listeners to drop !prime and !sub in the chat (not only plugging paid subscriptions but also proving just how supportive she is of his career.)

Giving Back For All of the Support He's Received

Aydan is currently one of the top gamers in the world. An American competitive eSports gamer, he's known for dominating the leaderboard in Fortnite and more recently, Call of Duty: Warzone .

He makes a living off of playing video games and we don't mean chump change. As of 2023, he's racked up more than $600,000 in winnings not to mention the money he makes off his wildly successful YouTube and Twitch channels, which have a combined following of over 4 million people.

Add to that a number of sponsors, including Hello Fresh and Monster Energy , and the kid's doing alright.

He's gone from growing up in a trailer home just 20 miles west of Cleveland to living in a luxury apartment in Irvine, California.

But despite his fame and fortune, he hasn't forgotten his roots. Or the woman who has supported him through it all — his mom.

Copyright © 2024 Goalcast

Get stories worth sharing delivered to your inbox

• More from M-W
• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Definition of biography

Did you know.

So You've Been Asked to Submit a Biography

In a library, the word biography refers both to a kind of book and to a section where books of that kind are found. Each biography tells the story of a real person's life. A biography may be about someone who lived long ago, recently, or even someone who is still living, though in the last case it must necessarily be incomplete. The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person it's about. Autobiographies are of course also necessarily incomplete.

Sometimes biographies are significantly shorter than a book—something anyone who's been asked to submit a biography for, say, a conference or a community newsletter will be glad to know. Often the word in these contexts is shortened to bio , a term that can be both a synonym of biography and a term for what is actually a biographical sketch: a brief description of a person's life. These kinds of biographies—bios—vary, but many times they are only a few sentences long. Looking at bios that have been used in the same context can be a useful guide in determining what to put in your own.

Examples of biography in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Late Greek biographia , from Greek bi- + -graphia -graphy

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near biography

biographize

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biography. Accessed 7 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of biography, more from merriam-webster on biography.

Nglish: Translation of biography for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of biography for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about biography

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day, extemporize.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

More commonly misspelled words, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, 12 star wars words, the words of the week - may 3, a great big list of bread words, 10 scrabble words without any vowels, 8 uncommon words related to love, games & quizzes.

Definition of Biography

A biography is the non- fiction , written history or account of a person’s life. Biographies are intended to give an objective portrayal of a person, written in the third person. Biographers collect information from the subject (if he/she is available), acquaintances of the subject, or in researching other sources such as reference material, experts, records, diaries, interviews, etc. Most biographers intend to present the life story of a person and establish the context of their story for the reader, whether in terms of history and/or the present day. In turn, the reader can be reasonably assured that the information presented about the biographical subject is as true and authentic as possible.

Biographies can be written about a person at any time, no matter if they are living or dead. However, there are limitations to biography as a literary device. Even if the subject is involved in the biographical process, the biographer is restricted in terms of access to the subject’s thoughts or feelings.

Biographical works typically include details of significant events that shape the life of the subject as well as information about their childhood, education, career, and relationships. Occasionally, a biography is made into another form of art such as a film or dramatic production. The musical production of “Hamilton” is an excellent example of a biographical work that has been turned into one of the most popular musical productions in Broadway history.

Common Examples of Biographical Subjects

Most people assume that the subject of a biography must be a person who is famous in some way. However, that’s not always the case. In general, biographical subjects tend to be interesting people who have pioneered something in their field of expertise or done something extraordinary for humanity. In addition, biographical subjects can be people who have experienced something unusual or heartbreaking, committed terrible acts, or who are especially gifted and/or talented.

As a literary device, biography is important because it allows readers to learn about someone’s story and history. This can be enlightening, inspiring, and meaningful in creating connections. Here are some common examples of biographical subjects:

• political leaders
• entrepreneurs
• historical figures
• serial killers
• notorious people
• political activists
• adventurers/explorers
• religious leaders
• military leaders
• cultural figures

Famous Examples of Biographical Works

The readership for biography tends to be those who enjoy learning about a certain person’s life or overall field related to the person. In addition, some readers enjoy the literary form of biography independent of the subject. Some biographical works become well-known due to either the person’s story or the way the work is written, gaining a readership of people who may not otherwise choose to read biography or are unfamiliar with its form.

Here are some famous examples of biographical works that are familiar to many readers outside of biography fans:

• Alexander Hamilton (Ron Chernow)
• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Caroline Fraser)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• Churchill: A Life (Martin Gilbert)
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (Simon Winchester)
• A Beautiful Mind (Sylvia Nasar)
• The Black Rose (Tananarive Due)
• John Adams (David McCullough)
• Into the Wild ( Jon Krakauer )
• John Brown (W.E.B. Du Bois)
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (Hayden Herrera)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Doris Kearns Goodwin)
• Shirley Jackson : A Rather Haunted Life ( Ruth Franklin)
• the stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit (Michael Finkel)

Difference Between Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir

Biography, autobiography , and memoir are the three main forms used to tell the story of a person’s life. Though there are similarities between these forms, they have distinct differences in terms of the writing, style , and purpose.

A biography is an informational narrative and account of the life history of an individual person, written by someone who is not the subject of the biography. An autobiography is the story of an individual’s life, written by that individual. In general, an autobiography is presented chronologically with a focus on key events in the person’s life. Since the writer is the subject of an autobiography, it’s written in the first person and considered more subjective than objective, like a biography. In addition, autobiographies are often written late in the person’s life to present their life experiences, challenges, achievements, viewpoints, etc., across time.

Memoir refers to a written collection of a person’s significant memories, written by that person. Memoir doesn’t generally include biographical information or chronological events unless it’s relevant to the story being presented. The purpose of memoir is reflection and an intention to share a meaningful story as a means of creating an emotional connection with the reader. Memoirs are often presented in a narrative style that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Examples of Biography in Literature

An important subset of biography is literary biography. A literary biography applies biographical study and form to the lives of artists and writers. This poses some complications for writers of literary biographies in that they must balance the representation of the biographical subject, the artist or writer, as well as aspects of the subject’s literary works. This balance can be difficult to achieve in terms of judicious interpretation of biographical elements within an author’s literary work and consideration of the separate spheres of the artist and their art.

Literary biographies of artists and writers are among some of the most interesting biographical works. These biographies can also be very influential for readers, not only in terms of understanding the artist or writer’s personal story but the context of their work or literature as well. Here are some examples of well-known literary biographies:

Example 1:  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  (Nancy Milford)

One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn’t shock her. It wasn’t vulgar. ‘So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words.’

This passage reflects the way in which Milford is able to characterize St. Vincent Millay as a person interacting with her sister. Even avid readers of a writer’s work are often unaware of the artist’s private and personal natures, separate from their literature and art. Milford reflects the balance required on the part of a literary biographer of telling the writer’s life story without undermining or interfering with the meaning and understanding of the literature produced by the writer. Though biographical information can provide some influence and context for a writer’s literary subjects, style, and choices , there is a distinction between the fictional world created by a writer and the writer’s “real” world. However, a literary biographer can illuminate the writer’s story so that the reader of both the biography and the biographical subject’s literature finds greater meaning and significance.

Example 2:  The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens  (Claire Tomalin)

The season of domestic goodwill and festivity must have posed a problem to all good Victorian family men with more than one family to take care of, particularly when there were two lots of children to receive the demonstrations of paternal love.

Tomalin’s literary biography of Charles Dickens reveals the writer’s extramarital relationship with a woman named Nelly Ternan. Tomalin presents the complications that resulted for Dickens from this relationship in terms of his personal and family life as well as his professional writing and literary work. Revealing information such as an extramarital relationship can influence the way a reader may feel about the subject as a person, and in the case of literary biography it can influence the way readers feel about the subject’s literature as well. Artists and writers who are beloved , such as Charles Dickens, are often idealized by their devoted readers and society itself. However, as Tomalin’s biography of Dickens indicates, artists and writers are complicated and as subject to human failings as anyone else.

Example 3:  Virginia Woolf  (Hermione Lee)

‘A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living’: so too with the biography of that self. And just as lives don’t stay still, so life-writing can’t be fixed and finalised. Our ideas are shifting about what can be said, our knowledge of human character is changing. The biographer has to pioneer, going ‘ahead of the rest of us, like the miner’s canary, testing the atmosphere , detecting falsity, unreality, and the presence of obsolete conventions’. So, ‘There are some stories which have to be retold by each generation’. She is talking about the story of Shelley, but she could be talking about her own life-story.

In this passage, Lee is able to demonstrate what her biographical subject, Virginia Woolf, felt about biography and a person telling their own or another person’s story. Literary biographies of well-known writers can be especially difficult to navigate in that both the author and biographical subject are writers, but completely separate and different people. As referenced in this passage by Lee, Woolf was aware of the subtleties and fluidity present in a person’s life which can be difficult to judiciously and effectively relay to a reader on the part of a biographer. In addition, Woolf offers insight into the fact that biographers must make choices in terms of what information is presented to the reader and the context in which it is offered, making them a “miner’s canary” as to how history will view and remember the biographical subject.

Post navigation

Biographies: The Stories of Humanity

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A biography is a story of a person's life, written by another author. The writer of a biography is called a biographer while the person written about is known as the subject or biographee.

Biographies usually take the form of a narrative , proceeding chronologically through the stages of a person's life. American author Cynthia Ozick notes in her essay "Justice (Again) to Edith Wharton" that a good biography is like a novel, wherein it believes in the idea of a life as "a triumphal or tragic story with a shape, a story that begins at birth, moves on to a middle part, and ends with the death of the protagonist."

A biographical essay is a comparatively short work of nonfiction  about certain aspects of a person's life. By necessity, this sort of essay  is much more selective than a full-length biography, usually focusing only on key experiences and events in the subject's life.

Between History and Fiction

Perhaps because of this novel-like form, biographies fit squarely between written history and fiction, wherein the author often uses personal flairs and must invent details "filling in the gaps" of the story of a person's life that can't be gleaned from first-hand or available documentation like home movies, photographs, and written accounts.

Some critics of the form argue it does a disservice to both history and fiction, going so far as to call them "unwanted offspring, which has brought a great embarrassment to them both," as Michael Holroyd puts it in his book "Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography." Nabokov even called biographers "psycho-plagiarists," meaning that they steal the psychology of a person and transcribe it to the written form.

Biographies are distinct from creative non-fiction such as memoir in that biographies are specifically about one person's full life story -- from birth to death -- while creative non-fiction is allowed to focus on a variety of subjects, or in the case of memoirs certain aspects of an individual's life.

Writing a Biography

For writers who want to pen another person's life story, there are a few ways to spot potential weaknesses, starting with making sure proper and ample research has been conducted -- pulling resources such as newspaper clippings, other academic publications, and recovered documents and found footage.  

First and foremost, it is the duty of biographers to avoid misrepresenting the subject as well as acknowledging the research sources they used. Writers should, therefore, avoid presenting a personal bias for or against the subject as being objective is key to conveying the person's life story in full detail.

Perhaps because of this, John F. Parker observes in his essay "Writing: Process to Product" that some people find writing a biographical essay "easier than writing an  autobiographical  essay. Often it takes less effort to write about others than to reveal ourselves." In other words, in order to tell the full story, even the bad decisions and scandals have to make the page in order to truly be authentic.

• An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
• How to Define Autobiography
• A Profile in Composition
• What Is a Novel? Definition and Characteristics
• Biography of Salman Rushdie, Master of the Modern Allegorical Novel
• 10 Contemporary Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs for Teens
• Stream of Consciousness Writing
• Biography of William Golding, British Novelist
• Biography of Louise Erdrich, Native American Author
• Biography of Marge Piercy, Feminist Novelist and Poet
• Genres in Literature
• What Is the Definition of Passing for White?
• What Is an Autobiography?
• Organizational Strategies for Using Chronological Order in Writing

Literary Devices

Literary devices, terms, and elements, definition of biography.

A biography is a description of a real person’s life, including factual details as well as stories from the person’s life. Biographies usually include information about the subject’s personality and motivations, and other kinds of intimate details excluded in a general overview or profile of a person’s life. The vast majority of biography examples are written about people who are or were famous, such as politicians, actors, athletes, and so on. However, some biographies can be written about people who lived incredible lives, but were not necessarily well-known. A biography can be labelled “authorized” if the person being written about, or his or her family members, have given permission for a certain author to write the biography.

The word biography comes from the Greek words bios , meaning “life” and – graphia , meaning “writing.”

Difference Between Biography and Autobiography

A biography is a description of a life that is not the author’s own, while an autobiography is the description of a writer’s own life. There can be some gray area, however, in the definition of biography when a ghostwriter is employed. A ghostwriter is an author who helps in the creation of a book, either collaborating with someone else or doing all of the writing him- or herself. Some famous people ask for the help of a ghostwriter to create their own autobiographies if they are not particularly gifted at writing but want the story to sound like it’s coming from their own mouths. In the case of a ghostwritten autobiography, the writer is not actually writing about his or her own life, but has enough input from the subject to create a work that is very close to the person’s experience.

Common Examples of Biography

The genre of biography is so popular that there is even a cable network originally devoted to telling the stories of famous people’s lives (fittingly called The Biography Channel). The stories proved to be such good television that other networks caught on, such as VH1 producing biographies under the series name “Behind the Music.” Some examples of written biographies have become famous in their own right, such as the following books:

• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (made even more famous by the musical “Hamilton,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

Significance of Biography in Literature

The genre of biography developed out of other forms of historical nonfiction, choosing to focus on one specific person’s experience rather than all important players. There are examples of biography all the way back to 44 B.C. when Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos wrote Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae (“Lives of those capable of commanding”). The Greek historian Plutarch was also famous for his biographies, creating a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans in his book Parallel Lives . After the printing press was created, one of the first “bestsellers” was the 1550 famous biography Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Biography then got very popular in the 18th century with James Boswell’s 1791 publication of The Life of Samuel Johnson . Biography continues to be one of the best selling genres in literature, and has led to a number of literary prizes specifically for this form.

Examples of Biography in Literature

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn’t care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He’s still going to make these hikes, he’d insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.

( Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder)

Tracy Kidder’s wonderful example of biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains , brought the work of Dr. Paul Farmer to a wider audience. Dr. Farmer cofounded the organization Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987 to provide free treatment to patients in Haiti; the organization later created similar projects in countries such as Russia, Peru, and Rwanda. Dr. Farmer was not necessarily a famous man before Tracy Kidder’s biography was published, though he was well-regarded in his own field. The biography describes Farmer’s work as well as some of his personal life.

On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy’s “Family Happiness”, having marked several passages that moved him: “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…” Then, on July 3, he shouldered his backpack and began the twenty-mile hike to the improved road. Two days later, halfway there, he arrived in heavy rain at the beaver ponds that blocked access to the west bank of the Teklanika River. In April they’d been frozen over and hadn’t presented an obstacle. Now he must have been alarmed to find a three-acre lake covering the trail.

( Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer)

Jon Krakauer is a writer and outdoorsman famous for many nonfiction books, including his own experience in a mountaineering disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. His book Into the Wild is a nonfiction biography of a young boy, Christopher McCandless who chose to donate all of his money and go into the wilderness in the American West. McCandless starved to death in Denali National Park in 1992. The biography delved into the facts surrounding McCandless’s death, as well as incorporating some of Krakauer’s own experience.

A commanding woman versed in politics, diplomacy, and governance; fluent in nine languages; silver-tongued and charismatic, Cleopatra nonetheless seems the joint creation of Roman propagandists and Hollywood directors.

( Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff)

Stacy Schiff wrote a new biography of Cleopatra in 2010 in order to divide fact from fiction, and go back to the amazing and intriguing personality of the woman herself. The biography was very well received for being both scrupulously referenced as well as highly literary and imaginative.

Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.

( Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand)

Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography Unbroken covers the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who lived through almost unbelievable circumstances, including running in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, being shot down as a bomber in WWII, surviving in a raft in the ocean for 47 days, and then surviving Japanese prisoner of war camps. Zamperini’s life story is one of those narratives that is “stranger than fiction” and Hillenbrand brings the drama brilliantly to the reader.

I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.”

( Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson)

Steve Jobs is one of the most famous cultural icons of modern-day America and, indeed, around the world, and thus his biography was eagerly awaited. The author, Walter Isaacson, was able to interview Jobs extensively during the writing process. Thus, the above excerpt is possible where the writer is a character in the story himself, asking Jobs about his views on life and philosophy of the world.

Test Your Knowledge of Biography

1. Which of the following statements is the best biography definition? A. A retelling of one small moment from another person’s life. B. A novel which details one specific character’s full life. C. A description of a real person’s entire life, written by someone else. [spoiler title=”Answer to Question #1″] Answer: C is the correct answer.[/spoiler]

2. Which of the following scenarios qualifies as a biography? A. A famous person contracts a ghostwriter to create an autobiography. B. A famous author writes the true and incredible life story of a little known person. C. A writer creates a book detailing the most important moments in her own life. [spoiler title=”Answer to Question #2″] Answer: B is the correct answer.[/spoiler]

3. Which of the following statements is true? A. Biographies are one of the best selling genres in contemporary literature. B. Biographies are always written about famous people. C. Biographies were first written in the 18th century. [spoiler title=”Answer to Question #3″] Answer: A is the correct answer.[/spoiler]

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Grammar Coach ™
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

[ bahy- og -r uh -fee , bee- ]

the biography of Byron by Marchand.

• an account in biographical form of an organization, society, theater, animal, etc.
• such writings collectively.
• the writing of biography as an occupation or field of endeavor.

/ baɪˈɒɡrəfɪ; ˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪkəl /

• an account of a person's life by another
• such accounts collectively
• The story of someone's life. The Life of Samuel Johnson , by James Boswell , and Abraham Lincoln , by Carl Sandburg , are two noted biographies. The story of the writer's own life is an autobiography .

Discover More

Derived forms.

• biˈographer , noun
• biographical , adjective
• ˌbioˈgraphically , adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of biography 1

Example Sentences

Barrett didn’t say anything on Tuesday to contradict our understanding of her ideological leanings based on her past rulings, past statements and biography.

Republicans, meanwhile, focused mostly on her biography — including her role as a working mother of seven and her Catholic faith — and her credentials, while offering few specifics about her record as a law professor and judge.

She delivered an inspiring biography at one point, reflecting on the sacrifice her mother made to emigrate to the United States.

As Walter Isaacson pointed out in his biography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin proposed the postal system as a vital network to bond together the 13 disparate colonies.

Serving that end, the book is not an in-depth biography as much as a summary of Galileo’s life and science, plus a thorough recounting of the events leading up to his famous trial.

The Amazon biography for an author named Papa Faal mentions both Gambia and lists a military record that matches the FBI report.

For those unfamiliar with Michals, an annotated biography and useful essays are included.

Did you envision your Pryor biography as extending your previous investigation—aesthetically and historically?

But Stephen Kotkin's new biography reveals a learned despot who acted cunningly to take advantage of the times.

Watching novelists insult one another is one of the primary pleasures of his biography.

He also published two volumes of American Biography, a work which his death abridged.

Mme. de Chaulieu gave her husband the three children designated in the duc's biography.

The biography of great men always has been, and always will be read with interest and profit.

I like biography far better than fiction myself: fiction is too free.

The Bookman: "A more entertaining narrative whether in biography or fiction has not appeared in recent years."

Related Words

• autobiography

Words and phrases

Personal account.

• Access or purchase personal subscriptions
• Get our newsletter
• Save searches
• Set display preferences

Institutional access

Sign in with library card

Sign in with username / password

Recommend to your librarian

Institutional account management

Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic

biography noun

• Hide all quotations

What does the noun biography mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun biography . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

How common is the noun biography ?

How is the noun biography pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun biography come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun biography is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for biography is from 1661, in the writing of John Fell, bishop of Oxford.

biography is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin biographia .

Nearby entries

• biognosy, n. 1880
• biograph, n. 1825–
• biograph, v. 1776–
• biographee, n. 1812–
• biographer, n. 1644–
• biographic, adj. 1752–
• biographical, adj. 1668–
• biographically, adv. ?1719–
• biographist, n. a1661–
• biographize, v. 1793–
• biography, n. 1661–
• biography, v. 1794–
• biographying, n. 1858–
• biohacker, n. 1988–
• biohacking, n. 1992–
• biohazard, n. 1965–
• biohazardous, adj. 1973–
• bioherm, n. 1928–
• biohermal, adj. 1937–
• bioidentical, adj. 1995–
• bioimaging, n. 1983–

Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary

To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.

Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for biography, n..

biography, n. was revised in November 2010.

biography, n. was last modified in July 2023.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into biography, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1887)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View biography, n. in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for biography, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for biography, n., browse entry.

• 1.1 Pronunciation
• 1.2.1.1 Synonyms
• 1.2.1.2 Derived terms
• 1.2.1.3 Related terms
• 1.2.1.4 Translations
• 1.2.2 Adverb
• 1.4 Anagrams
• 2.1.1 Pronunciation
• 2.1.2 Interjection
• 2.2.1 Pronunciation
• 3.1 Etymology
• 3.2 Pronunciation
• 3.3.1 Usage notes
• 3.3.2 See also
• 3.4 Interjection
• 3.5 Further reading
• 4.1 Etymology
• 4.2 Pronunciation
• 4.3 Adjective
• 4.4.1 Synonyms
• 5.1 Etymology
• 5.2 Pronunciation
• 5.3.1 Derived terms
• 5.4.1 Inflection
• 5.4.2 Related terms
• 6.1 Etymology
• 6.2 Pronunciation
• 6.3.1 Antonyms
• 7.1.1 Pronunciation
• 7.1.2.1 Derived terms
• 7.1.2.2 Descendants
• 7.1.3.1 Synonyms
• 7.1.4 Interjection
• 7.1.5 Related terms
• 7.2.1 Pronunciation
• 7.2.2.1 Conjugation
• 7.3 Further reading
• 7.4 Anagrams
• 8.1 Etymology
• 8.2 Pronunciation
• 8.3.1 Usage notes
• 8.3.2 Declension
• 8.3.3 Derived terms
• 8.4 Further reading
• 9.1 Preposition
• 10.1 Etymology
• 10.2 Pronunciation
• 10.3 Adjective
• 10.6 Anagrams
• 11.1 Etymology
• 11.2 Pronunciation
• 11.3.1 Usage notes
• 11.4.1 Quotations
• 11.4.2 Antonyms
• 11.4.3 Derived terms
• 11.4.4 Descendants
• 11.5 References
• 12.1 Etymology
• 12.2 Pronunciation
• 12.3 Adjective
• 12.4 Adverb
• 12.5 See also
• 12.6 Further reading
• 13.1 Alternative forms
• 13.2 Etymology
• 13.3 Adverb
• 13.4 Adjective
• 14.1 Etymology
• 14.2.1 Declension
• 14.3 Adverb
• 15.1 Alternative forms
• 15.2 Etymology
• 15.3 Pronunciation
• 15.4 Preposition
• 16.1 Etymology
• 16.2 Adjective
• 17.1 Pronunciation
• 17.3.1 Declension

English [ edit ]

Pronunciation [ edit ].

• Homophone : souper ( one pronunciation )
• Hyphenation: su‧per
• Rhymes: -uːpə(ɹ)

Etymology 1 [ edit ]

From super- ( prefix ) , from Middle English super- , from Latin super- , from super ( “ above ” ) . Doublet of over and hyper .

Adjective [ edit ]

super ( not comparable )

• Of excellent quality, superfine .
• better than average, better than usual; wonderful .

Synonyms [ edit ]

• ( better ) : awesome , excellent

Derived terms [ edit ]

• chief super
• super combined
• super-duper
• super gonorrhea
• super greenhouse gas
• super light
• super outbreak
• super power
• super recogniser
• super spiral
• super star cluster
• super straight
• super trouper
• super video CD
• super weakly interacting massive particle
• super X-ray

Related terms [ edit ]

Translations [ edit ], adverb [ edit ].

• 1992 March 14, The Canberra Times , page 9, column 2: The job is super interesting for a person who enjoys a hardware environment and communicating with people.
• 2022 November 18, Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, Kellen Browning, quoting Elon Musk, “Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave”, in The New York Times ‎ [1] , →ISSN : “The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried,” he tweeted.

Etymology 2 [ edit ]

Abbreviation by shortening.

Noun [ edit ]

super ( plural supers )

• ( Australia , New Zealand , informal ) Short for superannuation . Jane looked forward to collecting a large super payout when she retired.
• 1989 , Kai Hwang, Doug DeGroot, Parallel processing for supercomputers and artificial intelligence : The performances and cost ranges of three classes of commercial supercomputers are given in Table 2.1. The full-scale supers are the most expensive class, represented by Cray, ETA, and Fujitsu systems, for example.
• For quotations using this term, see Citations:super .
• 1983 , Sue Hubbell, A Country Year: Living the Questions , Boston, MA: Mariner Books , published 1999 , →ISBN , page 69 : There may be thirty to fifty supers in every outyard, and we have only about half an hour to get them off the hives, stacked and covered before the bees get really cross about what we are doing.
• ( informal , US ) Short for superintendent , especially, a building's resident manager ( sometimes clarified as “building super” ) .
• 1904–1905 , Baroness Orczy [ i.e. , Emma Orczy ], “ The Affair at the Novelty Theatre ”, in The Case of Miss Elliott , London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin , published 1905 , →OCLC ; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831 , quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html) , Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia , February 2020: For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.
• 1916 , Ring W. Lardner , “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post ‎ [2] : The piece was gave by a bunch o’ supers the time I went. I’d like to see it with a real cast. They say it’s a whiz when it’s acted right.
• 1973 , Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil , page 46 : That is a lot of ship, about the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers , mammoths and oilbergs.
• Short for supervisor .

Verb [ edit ]

super ( third-person singular simple present supers , present participle supering , simple past and past participle supered )

• 1917 Dadant, C. P., First Lessons in Beekeeping ; revised & rewritten edition, 1968, by M. G. Dadant and J. C. Dadant, p 73: The question is: when is the best time to super ?
• 1987 , Television Quarterly , volumes 23-24 : Even running a supered "Re-enactment" caption for a few seconds is poor policy, he feels [ … ]

Anagrams [ edit ]

• Pre-Us , Purse , Rupes , puers , pures , purse , re-ups , reups , rupes , sprue

Chinese [ edit ]

From English super . Popularized by Eric Tsang in the Super Trio series .

• Cantonese ( Jyutping ) : sup 1 paa 4
• Jyutping : sup 1 paa 4
• Yale : colloquial sounds not defined
• Cantonese Pinyin : sup 7 paa 4
• Guangdong Romanization : colloquial sounds not defined
• Sinological IPA ( key ) : /suːp̚⁵ pʰaː ²¹ /

Interjection [ edit ]

• ( Hong Kong Cantonese ) Used when a tied or draw situation occurs, or when one is suggesting a draw .

Clipping of English super visor .

• Cantonese ( Jyutping ) : sup 1 paa 2
• Jyutping : sup 1 paa 2
• Cantonese Pinyin : sup 7 paa 2
• Sinological IPA ( key ) : /suːp̚⁵ pʰaː³⁵/
• ( Hong Kong Cantonese , university slang ) supervisor (of a student )
• ( Hong Kong Cantonese ) supervisor ; manager

Czech [ edit ]

Etymology [ edit ].

Borrowed from English super , French super , from Latin super .

• IPA ( key ) : [ˈsupɛr]

super ( indeclinable )

• ( informal ) super , great Synonym: supr Můj brácha si koupil super auto, to musíš vidět! Ten výlet byl prostě super!

Usage notes [ edit ]

• This word is slightly more formal than supr , yet still informal.

See also [ edit ]

• ( informal ) super Synonym: supr

Further reading [ edit ]

• super in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu

Danish [ edit ]

Borrowed via English super from Latin super ( “ over ” )

• IPA ( key ) : [ˈsuˀb̥ɐ]

super ( neuter super or supert , plural super or ( unofficial ) supre )

• ( informal ) terrific
• ( informal ) very

Dutch [ edit ]

Borrowed from English super , ultimately from Latin super .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈsy.pər/
• ( informal ) very , extremely , super De kunststofuitvoering is wel super duur. The plastic version is super expensive.
• superkracht
• great , super Die nieuwe karts zijn super . Those new karts are great .

Inflection [ edit ]

Esperanto [ edit ].

From Latin super .

• IPA ( key ) : [ˈsuper]
• Rhymes: -uper

Preposition [ edit ]

Antonyms [ edit ], french [ edit ].

Borrowed from Latin super . Doublet of the inherited sur . See also hyper , borrowed from Ancient Greek.

• IPA ( key ) : /sy.pɛʁ/

super ( invariable )

• superb , great
• super amas stellaire
• super-amas d’étoiles
• super-amas stellaire
• super combiné

Descendants [ edit ]

• ( informal ) extremely , very ( as an intensifier ) Il est super beau he's very handsome
• great , fantastic

Probably a borrowing from a Germanic language, from *sūpaną ( “ to sip, sup ” ) . If so then doublet of souper .

• IPA ( key ) : /sy.pe/
• ( regional ) to suck , to sip

Conjugation [ edit ]

• “ super ”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [ Digitized Treasury of the French Language ] , 2012 .
• peurs , pures , repus , rupes

German [ edit ]

Borrowed from Latin super ; modern usage influenced by English super .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈzuːpɐ/ ( prescriptive standard )
• IPA ( key ) : /ˈsu(ː)pɐ/ ( Austria )

super ( strong nominative masculine singular superer , not comparable )

• ( colloquial ) super , great , awesome Synonyms: klasse , spitze

In the standard language, super is indeclinable ; it is only rarely declined in colloquial usage.

Declension [ edit ]

• “ super ” in Duden online
• “ super ” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Interlingua [ edit ]

• about ( focused on a given topic )

Italian [ edit ]

Borrowed from Latin super . Cf. sopra .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈsu.per/
• Hyphenation: sù‧per

super   m ( invariable )

• superphosphate

super   f ( invariable )

• the best grade of petrol
• pruse , ruspe , sprue

Latin [ edit ]

From Proto-Italic *super , from Proto-Indo-European *upér ( “ over, above ” ) . Cognate to to Ancient Greek ὑπέρ ( hupér , “ above ” ) .

The accusative is from the pre-PIE directional. The ablative is from the ablative of cause.

• ( Classical ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈsu.per/ , [ˈs̠ʊpɛr]
• ( modern Italianate Ecclesiastical ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈsu.per/ , [ˈsuːper]

super (+ accusative , ablative )

• ( with accusative or ablative ) [of place] above , on the top of, upon Cibus super mensam est. The food is on the table.
• 405 CE , Jerome , Vulgate Genesis.1.2: terra autem erat inanis et vacua et tenebrae super faciem abyssi et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
• ( with accusative ) [of measure] above , beyond , over , in addition to
• ( with ablative ) concerning , regarding
• Used in many compound words, see super- .
• above , on top , over
• 29 BCE – 19 BCE , Virgil , Aeneid 1.29 : Hīs accēnsa super [...] [Juno] having been inflamed by these [things] in addition [...] Or, translated more plainly: With all of this angering her [...] (See: Juno (mythology) .)

References [ edit ]

• “ super ”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short ( 1879 ) A Latin Dictionary , Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ super ”, in Charlton T. Lewis ( 1891 ) An Elementary Latin Dictionary , New York: Harper & Brothers
• super in Gaffiot, Félix ( 1934 ) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français , Hachette.
• the river is over its banks, is in flood: flumen super ripas effunditur
• super in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700 ‎ [4] , pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Polish [ edit ]

Borrowed from English super .

• IPA ( key ) : /ˈsu.pɛr/
• Rhymes: -upɛr
• Syllabification: su‧per
• Homophone : super-

super ( not comparable , no derived adverb )

• ( colloquial ) great , excellent Synonyms: see Thesaurus: dobry
• ( colloquial ) excellently
• super in Wielki słownik języka polskiego , Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• super in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese [ edit ]

Alternative forms [ edit ].

• súper ( prescribed )

Unadapted borrowing from Latin super ; cf. also English super . Doublet of the inherited sobre .

• ( informal ) super , very (intensifier) Synonyms: muito , bastante , bué , mega super fixe very nice

Romanian [ edit ]

Borrowed from French super .

super   m or f or n ( indeclinable )

Sardinian [ edit ]

• IPA ( key ) : /super/
• on , on top of , above Synonym: supra

Spanish [ edit ]

Borrowed from Latin super ; cf. also English super . Doublet of the inherited sobre .

• ( intensifier ) very , mega

Swedish [ edit ]

• IPA ( key ) : /²sʉːpɛr/
• present indicative of supa
• perfect , super , excellent , great det blir super ! ― that's going to be great !

Only used predicatively.

• English 2-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio links
• English terms with homophones
• Rhymes:English/uːpə(ɹ)
• Rhymes:English/uːpə(ɹ)/2 syllables
• English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• English terms inherited from Middle English
• English terms derived from Middle English
• English terms derived from Latin
• English doublets
• English lemmas
• English adjectives
• English uncomparable adjectives
• English adverbs
• English uncomparable adverbs
• English informal terms
• English terms with usage examples
• English terms with quotations
• English nouns
• English countable nouns
• Australian English
• New Zealand English
• English short forms
• English slang
• en:Beekeeping
• American English
• English neologisms
• English verbs
• en:Television
• Cantonese terms derived from English
• Chinese lemmas
• Cantonese lemmas
• Chinese interjections
• Cantonese interjections
• Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation
• Chinese terms written in foreign scripts
• Hong Kong Cantonese
• Cantonese clippings
• Chinese nouns
• Cantonese nouns
• zh:Universities
• Chinese student slang
• Czech terms borrowed from English
• Czech terms derived from English
• Czech terms borrowed from French
• Czech terms derived from French
• Czech terms derived from Latin
• Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
• Czech lemmas
• Czech adjectives
• Czech indeclinable adjectives
• Czech informal terms
• Czech interjections
• Danish terms borrowed from English
• Danish terms derived from English
• Danish terms derived from Latin
• Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
• Danish lemmas
• Danish adjectives
• Danish informal terms
• Danish adverbs
• Dutch terms borrowed from English
• Dutch terms derived from English
• Dutch terms derived from Latin
• Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
• Dutch terms with audio links
• Dutch lemmas
• Dutch adverbs
• Dutch informal terms
• Dutch terms with usage examples
• Dutch adjectives
• Esperanto terms borrowed from Latin
• Esperanto terms derived from Latin
• Esperanto terms with IPA pronunciation
• Esperanto terms with audio links
• Rhymes:Esperanto/uper
• Esperanto lemmas
• Esperanto prepositions
• Esperanto BRO1
• French terms borrowed from Latin
• French terms derived from Latin
• French doublets
• French 2-syllable words
• French terms with IPA pronunciation
• French lemmas
• French adjectives
• French adverbs
• French informal terms
• French terms with usage examples
• French interjections
• French terms derived from Germanic languages
• French verbs
• Regional French
• French verbs with conjugation -er
• French first group verbs
• French intensifiers
• French terms with irregularly sounded consonant
• German terms borrowed from Latin
• German terms derived from Latin
• German 2-syllable words
• German terms with IPA pronunciation
• German terms with audio links
• German lemmas
• German adjectives
• German uncomparable adjectives
• German colloquialisms
• Interlingua lemmas
• Interlingua prepositions
• Italian terms borrowed from Latin
• Italian terms derived from Latin
• Italian 2-syllable words
• Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
• Rhymes:Italian/uper
• Rhymes:Italian/uper/2 syllables
• Italian lemmas
• Italian adjectives
• Italian indeclinable adjectives
• Italian nouns
• Italian indeclinable nouns
• Italian countable nouns
• Italian masculine nouns
• Italian feminine nouns
• Latin terms inherited from Proto-Italic
• Latin terms derived from Proto-Italic
• Latin terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
• Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
• Latin 2-syllable words
• Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
• Latin lemmas
• Latin prepositions
• Latin accusative prepositions
• Latin ablative prepositions
• Latin terms with usage examples
• Latin terms with quotations
• Latin adverbs
• Latin uncomparable adverbs
• Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook
• Polish terms derived from Latin
• Polish terms borrowed from English
• Polish terms derived from English
• Polish 2-syllable words
• Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
• Polish terms with audio links
• Rhymes:Polish/upɛr
• Rhymes:Polish/upɛr/2 syllables
• Polish terms with homophones
• Polish lemmas
• Polish adjectives
• Polish uncomparable adjectives
• Polish colloquialisms
• Polish adverbs
• Polish uncomparable adverbs
• Polish manner adverbs
• Portuguese terms borrowed from Latin
• Portuguese unadapted borrowings from Latin
• Portuguese terms derived from Latin
• Portuguese doublets
• Portuguese lemmas
• Portuguese adverbs
• Portuguese uncomparable adverbs
• Portuguese informal terms
• Portuguese terms with usage examples
• Portuguese adjectives
• Portuguese indeclinable adjectives
• Romanian terms borrowed from French
• Romanian terms derived from French
• Romanian lemmas
• Romanian adjectives
• Romanian indeclinable adjectives
• Romanian adverbs
• Sardinian terms inherited from Latin
• Sardinian terms derived from Latin
• Sardinian terms with IPA pronunciation
• Sardinian lemmas
• Sardinian prepositions
• Spanish terms borrowed from Latin
• Spanish terms derived from Latin
• Spanish doublets
• Spanish lemmas
• Spanish adjectives
• Spanish indeclinable adjectives
• Swedish terms with IPA pronunciation
• Swedish non-lemma forms
• Swedish verb forms
• Swedish lemmas
• Swedish adjectives
• Swedish terms with usage examples
• English entries with topic categories using raw markup
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Japanese terms with redundant script codes
• Quotation templates to be cleaned
• French entries with language name categories using raw markup
• Foreign words of the day in Latin
• Foreign word of the day archive

Navigation menu

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of biography in English

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

• This biography offers a few glimpses of his life before he became famous .
• Her biography revealed that she was not as rich as everyone thought .
• The biography was a bit of a rush job .
• The biography is an attempt to uncover the inner man.
• The biography is woven from the many accounts which exist of things she did.
• exercise book
• novelistically
• young adult

biography | American Dictionary

• biographical

Examples of biography

Translations of biography.

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

the Beaufort scale

a fixed set of numbers used for measuring and comparing wind speeds, from 0 (for calm) to 12 (for hurricane)

Hidden in plain sight: words and phrases connected with hiding

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• English    Noun
• Translations
• All translations

To add biography to a word list please sign up or log in.

Add biography to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

Supercharge your reading experience

Access an extensive library of plot summaries and in-depth study guides written by literary experts..

Lifetime Readers

Customer Satisfaction

Study Guides

Plot Summaries

What's inside a SuperSummary Study Guide:

Analyzing literature can be hard — we make it easy. Get more out of your reading experience.

Detailed plot summary

Refresh your memory of key events and big ideas.

Comprehensive literary analysis

Unlock underlying meaning.

Examination of key figures in the text

Follow character arcs from tragedy to triumph.

Discussion of themes, symbols and motifs

Connect the dots among recurring ideas.

Important quotes with explanations

Appreciate the meaning behind the words.

Essay & discussion topics

Discover writing prompts and conversation starters.

See for yourself.

Check out our sample Study Guides:

Toni Morrison

Malcolm Gladwell

David And Goliath

D. H. Lawrence

Whales Weep Not!

SuperSummary Study Guides are packed with all the information you need to get the most out of the books you read.

Get better results

Over 95% of students surveyed reported that SuperSummary study guides helped them get a better grade!

Save hours of time

Whether you’re preparing for an assignment, a lesson plan, or a book club meeting, SuperSummary saves you hours of time preparing and sorting through inferior free products to find the content you need.

Learn from experts

SuperSummary guides are written by teachers, professors, and literature specialists with multiple years of experience. Meet our writers .

Try risk-free

We’re so sure you’ll love our study materials that they’re backed by a 7-day money-back guarantee .

Subscribe and get instant access to thousands of Study Guides for just $ 3 /month!

Meet some of our talented writers and editors..

SuperSummary recruits experienced teachers and literary experts with advanced literature degrees to analyze and write our guides.

Jenn Brisendine

20-year teaching career across middle and high school English

BA in Secondary Education (English & Dramatic Arts) and an MA in fiction writing

Specializes in writing and editing Middle Grade, YA, and high school-level materials

Elyse Myers

10 years of experience teaching literature courses at the university level and 6 years of experience as a fiction reference librarian

PhD in English Literature

Specializes in classic & contemporary prose fiction , particularly 19th & 20th-century American and British literature

Lily Beaumont

7-years experience in curriculum and study guide development

Joint MA in English and Women's & Gender Studies

Specializes in Victorian literature and feminist theory

Trending titles

Can't find what you're looking for? Suggest a title.

Real results from real customers:, supersummary stood out., the subscription is inexpensive and the guides provide a wealth of information., supersummary has more in-depth analyses., supersummary helps me a lot more than free websites., study guide collections.

Get inspired and find your next read with our carefully curated collections of titles based on common themes, topics, or audiences.

Women's Studies

Fiction with Strong Female Protagonists

Oprah's Book Club Picks

Audio Study Guides

BookTok Books

Screen Rant

Sugar episode 6's ending twist explained: what is colin farrell's character.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Sugar Soundtrack: Every Song & When They Play

Colin farrell's true detective replacement redeems his rotten tomatoes letdown 9 years later, bridgerton season 3's daphne "replacement" is actually the complete opposite (& that's a good thing).

Warning! This post contains major spoilers for Sugar episode 6.

• John Sugar's true identity as an alien is finally revealed in episode 6 of Apple TV+'s Sugar, changing the narrative direction drastically.
• The show hints at a shared purpose among all the polyglots, confirming that they are likely aliens working towards an agenda.
• Sugar's transformation from human to alien has been foreshadowed since the beginning, with subtle clues pointing towards his extraterrestrial identity.

In episode 6, Apple TV+'s Sugar finally drops its big twist, revealing the true identity of Colin Farrell's character. Although Sugar initially unfolded as a typical crime drama focusing on the day-to-day investigative exploits of a detective, it always hinted that there is more to its story than meets the eye. Even the early reviews of the show claimed it was a genre-bending series, suggesting it would switch narrative lanes somewhere in the middle of its runtime.

After dropping several clues about John Sugar's real identity in the first four episodes, Sugar episode 5 featured a tease where the titular character confessed he wanted to share something with Melanie. Unfortunately, the Colin Farrell character left Melanie and the audience in the dark after changing his mind. Sugar episode 6, however, finally discloses the truth about John Sugar, making it hard not to wonder how the twist will change the narrative director of the show's last two episodes.

While unfolding its gripping murder mystery drama, Apple TV+'s Sugar features a myriad of tracks that perfectly complement its story developments.

Sugar Episode 6's Ending Confirms John Is An Alien

John sugar & the other polyglots are not from earth.

In Sugar episode 6's ending , the titular character returns to Melanie's home after having a rough day. Convincing himself he deserves a " little break, " the character locks himself in a washroom and pulls out his box of unknown drugs. He then injects himself with a substance and instantly starts transforming into an otherworldly creature . His hair thins out and slowly disappears as his whole body turns into a shade of blue. While all this goes on, Sugar remains unfazed by what happens to his body, suggesting that he has gone through these transformations several times in the past.

John Sugar's identity reveal in episode 6 also confirms that every other polyglot, including Henry, working in his organization is also likely an alien.

Although the Apple TV+ series does not explicitly mention that the Colin Farrell character is an alien, his appearance makes it evident that he is not human. While he may still be a monster or some other supernatural being, many subtle clues throughout the show's runtime hint he is not from Earth. John Sugar's identity confirmation in episode 6 also confirms that every other polyglot, including Henry, working in his organization is also likely an alien. This suggests that all of them have a shared purpose on Earth and are working towards an agenda that seemingly benefits humanity.

True Detective season 2 was a letdown, and its Rotten Tomatoes score reflected it - but Colin Farrell's new detective show may help him redeem himself

All Clues That Foreshadowed Sugar's Extraterrestrial Identity

From sugar's altruism to his objectives.

As surprising as Sugar's human-to-alien transformation may seem in episode 6, the Apple TV+ show has been hinting at it since the beginning. Even in the show's opening episodes, something about Sugar seems off because he obsesses over classic sci-fi movies and perceives the world around him with child-like wonder . In Sugar 's black-and-white prologue , which unfolds in Japan, Sugar easily catches a housefly between his chopsticks, proving he has superhuman reflexes. Another episode establishes he also possesses superhuman strength, allowing him to lift a man effortlessly.

Even from a moral standpoint, John Sugar seems too good to be human . He always maintains an altruistic outlook towards the world and questions himself when he allows his emotions to lead his actions. As seen in the show's early episodes, he also does not get drunk and has to be reminded by Ruby that his job is only to " observe and report " to a higher authority. However, even though so many subtle hints in the first five episodes point towards the character's real identity, Sugar 's episode 6 presents it in a way that makes it utterly shocking.

New Sugar episodes are released every Friday on Apple TV+.

What Sugar's Big Reveal Means For Episodes 7 & 8

Sugar's reveal raises intrigue surrounding several other mysteries.

By revealing that Sugar is not human, the Apple TV+ series has established it does not conform to the tropes of typical detective dramas. This could mean that even the mystery behind Olivia's disappearance will be revealed with another supernatural twist , explaining why she reminds John Sugar of his sister, Djen. Speaking of Djen, the show has not even explored what happened to her. Since Sugar calls her his sister, she should also be an alien. It also seems likely that, in Sugar 's final episodes, the Colin Farrell character will finally reveal the truth about who he is to Melanie since he previously came close to doing it in episode 4.

...Why the aliens are working as private investigators and who they are reporting to remain a mystery.

In a previous episode, Ruby mentions that he and other polyglots have to " observe and report. " However, why the aliens are working as private investigators and who they are reporting to remain a mystery. The Apple TV+ show must also explain how the aliens ended up on Earth and what exactly they are trying to achieve. Hopefully, Sugar 's last two episodes will have enough time to answer at least some of these burning questions.

• Sugar (2024)

“Sugar” is a contemporary, unique take on one of the most popular and significant genres in literary, motion picture and television history: the private detective story. Academy Award nominee Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.

site categories

Amazon debuts new streaming video ad formats ahead of upfront event, breaking news.

Paramount Global Sees Ad Boost From Super Bowl, Paramount+ Passes 71 Million Subs In Q1, ‘Mean Girls’ & ‘Bob Marley’ Buoy Studio

By Jill Goldsmith

Jill Goldsmith

Co-Business Editor

More Stories By Jill

• B.J. Novak-Backed ChainFest Partners With Event Producer Medium Rare
• Jeffrey Katzenberg On Paramount Drama – “Don’t Count David Ellison Out”
• Paramount To Negotiate With Sony & Apollo But Continue Skydance Talks; James Cameron, Ari Emanuel Back David Ellison – Update

Paramount has just unleashed its first quarter financials and they look pretty promising, although all eyes are on the shakeup in the C-suite. Revenue was higher across the board, albeit a hair shy of Wall Street expectations. Operating losses narrowed. Free cash flow rose, a key metric since it allows the company to pay down debt.

Related Stories

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Largely Evades Questions About Paramount Global And NBA Talks, Says Executive Pay "Should Be Aligned" With Stock Performance

Paramount ad chief john halley embraces the "refreshing practicality" of pitching upfront buyers as corporate intrigue swirls.

The number hit just after the company confirmed that CEO Bob Bakish is departing, replaced with three division heads in a new office of the CEO amid drama-filled takeover talks with David Ellison ’s Skydance.

In Bakish’ absence, CFO Naveen Chopra delivered the standard earnings quote: “The team delivered another quarter of strong operational and financial performance — including significant growth in total company earnings and free cash flow — despite the dynamic environment we continue to operate in. It was a record-setting quarter for Paramount+ in engagement and revenue, and in the DTC segment as we continued to substantially narrow streaming losses. And CBS dominated with its powerful combination of sports and the return of a delayed fall slate that launched to massive audiences. As we look ahead, we remain focused on execution and transforming our cost base to best position Paramount for the future.”

Chopra led the company’s conference call at 4:30 ET with brief comments by the three new chiefs. In a very rare move, no one took questions from analysts.

Paramount’s total revenue, of just under $7.7 billion, was up 6%. Total operating losses narrowed to $417 million from $1.2 billion. Adjusted diluted EPS of 62 cents is up from 9 cents in the 2023 first quarter.

DTC revenue grew 24% to circa $1.9 billion, split between subscription (up 22% to nearly $1/4 billion) and advertising (up 31% to $520 million).

The TV Media group saw revenue nose up 1% to $5.2 billion, reflecting a 23-percentage point benefit from CBS’ broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII . Adjusted oibda (operating income before depreciation and amortization) grew 11% to $1.4 billion.

And filmed entertainment saw a 20% bump in theatrical revenue year-on-year (to $153 million) on the strength of Mean Girls, Bob Marley: One Love and Miramax’s release of The Beekeeper . Total revenue for the division grew 3% to $605 million. Licensing revenue fell 1% to $451 million.

As expected, the company took some heft one-time hits including $1.12 billion in programming charges as, it said, “we are rationalizing original content on our streaming services, especially internationally, and improving the efficiency of our linear network programming.” It incurred some charges for abandoning some projects in development and canceling other programming agreements. Another $186 million charge was for severance costs associated with layoffs in the first quarter. Paramount terminated about 800 staffers earlier this year.

Must Read Stories

Bob iger plans to limit marvel output; q2 results better than expected.

Billie Piper Among Season 2 Cast Additions; Three Regulars Exit

Fest on strike threat; ‘47 meters down’ threequel; thunder road label, strike averted in canada as writers & producers reach contract deal.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.