autobiographical

adjective

au·​to·​bio·​graph·​i·​cal ˌȯ-tə-ˌbī-ə-ˈgra-fi-kəl 

-bē-

variants or less commonly autobiographic

ˌȯ-tə-ˌbī-ə-ˈgra-fik 

-bē-

1

a

: of, relating to, or being an autobiography

an autobiographical essay/book/novel

… the television studios began to buy the film and broadcast rights to biographical and autobiographical narratives as fast as they bought the rights to fictional ones.

—Nigel Hamilton

In recounting the exploits of some half-dozen Soviet spies, the author synthesizes much autobiographical and historical material.

—Harry Howe Ransom

This heart-wrenching, autobiographical account of Burch's childhood between ages 8 and 11 has the power of a Dickens novel.

—Booklist

b

: in the style of or based on an autobiography

Made for a pittance by the then-unknown [Martin] Scorsese, this autobiographical film about his Italian-Catholic boyhood was shot in Hollywood and on location in New York City's Little Italy.

—Robert F. Moss

2

a

: of, relating to, or influenced by one's life or past personal experiences

… so much of Wyeth's art is autobiographical, that is, stimulated and conditioned by deep personal responses to locations or people, …

—John Wilmerding

… ask her for too many autobiographical details and she begs off, insisting that her days are too ordinary for words.

—Jeff Giles

b

: of, relating, or being memory of personally experienced events in the past

Autobiographical memory, that is, memory for personally experienced past events, is central to human functioning, as it is of fundamental significance for the individual's sense of self and goal orientation.

—Elise Debeer et al.

autobiographically

ˌȯ-tə-ˌbī-ə-ˈgra-fi-k(ə-)lē 

-bē-

adverb

The male coming-of-age story, by contrast, has been plundered relentlessly. D. H. Lawrence, Tobias Wolff, J. D. Salinger and Ernest Hemingway have written autobiographically.

—Courtney Weaver

She speaks here for the first time autobiographically, having dictated this memoir in the final months of her life.

—Francis Mason

Examples of autobiographical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Back then, my material was more surreal and less autobiographical. —Mikey O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Apr. 2024

The actors star as love interests Isabella and Rudy in Música, a new Prime Video film that tells the largely autobiographical story of Mancuso’s life growing up in the Brazilian community in Ironbound, New Jersey. —Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 3 Apr. 2024

Kumar’s novel has far greater autobiographical power than his nonfiction essay does. —James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024

Persepolis, an autobiographical coming-of-age story about Satrapi’s childhood in Tehran during and after the Iranian Revolution, was published in four French-language volumes between 2000 and 2003. —Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Mar. 2024

Deliriously weird yet relatable, the film is, at root, an immigration tale, more autobiographical than semi: Alejandro (Torres), from El Salvador like his creator, dreams of making weird toys for Hasbro, but faces the ticking clock of an expiring visa and deportation. —Joshua Rothkopf, Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2024

For urban folklorists and analysts (such as Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Raoul Walsh) and for autobiographical portraitists and historians of style (such as Terence Davies and Sofia Coppola), the lives of others are naturally linked to first-person observations and modes of expression. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2024

Yet its autobiographical elements are keenly felt, as Campillo grapples intelligently not just with the blind spots of his personal past, but those of his national heritage. —Guy Lodge, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024

Like their protagonists, the writer-directors are also married, which means the underlying anxieties are presumably autobiographical, albeit exaggerated. —Peter Debruge, Variety, 9 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

autobiography + -ical, after biographical

First Known Use

1807, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing autobiographical

• semi-autobiographical
• highly superior autobiographical memory