memoir

noun

mem·​oir ˈmem-ˌwär 

-ˌwȯr

1

: an official note or report : memorandum

2

a

: a narrative composed from personal experience

every memoir reminds us of the faraway and long ago, of loss and change, of persons and places beyond recall

—Abigail McCarthy

b

: autobiography

—usually used in plural

His memoirs recall his student days at Harvard.

c

: biography

his memoir of his longtime friend

3

a

: an account of something noteworthy : report

the work described and discussed in this memoir represent a first-class investigation

—J. A. Steers

b

memoirs plural : the record of the proceedings of a learned society

memoirist

ˈmem-ˌwär-ist 

-ˌwȯr-

noun

Synonyms

• bio
• biography
• life

Examples of memoir in a Sentence

a retired politician who is writing his memoirs

He has written a memoir of his mother.

a memoir of Hollywood in the 1930s

Recent Examples on the Web

Now, nearly three decades later, she’s written a memoir full of the personal and professional lessons from her early beginnings to building her award-winning digital marketing agency. —Pam Windsor, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024

This scene, set in the remote Andes in 1952, gets limited page time in Guevara’s scrappy coming-of-age memoir, which his family released posthumously in 1992. —Mark Johanson, Robb Report, 30 Nov. 2024

On the day of her death, Wood, Wagner and Walken had dinner and drinks on land and returned to the yacht around 10 p.m., per Wagner’s 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart. —Alex Gurley, People.com, 29 Nov. 2024

The outlet reported that his memoir, A Promised Land, sold around 890,000 copies in one day of its release. —Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 28 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle French memoire, from memoire memory, from Latin memoria

First Known Use

1571, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

memoir

noun

mem·​oir ˈmem-ˌwär 

-ˌwȯ(ə)r

1

a

: a story of a personal experience

b

: autobiography

—usually used in plural

c

: biography

2

: report entry 1 sense 2