bildungsroman
noun
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Bildungsroman is the combination of two German nouns: Bildung, meaning "education," and Roman, meaning "novel." (Nouns in German are always capitalized.) Fittingly, a bildungsroman is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character, and in particular, with the character's psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note, with the protagonist's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over, and a life of usefulness ahead. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's late 18th-century work Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is often cited as the classic example of a bildungsroman. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, in recent years some English speakers have begun to apply it to films that deal with a youthful character's coming-of-age.
Examples of bildungsroman in a Sentence
Alissa Quart, Time, 30 Aug. 2025
Boyle casts the zombie plot as a failed bildungsroman, a story about the parts of us that will neither mature nor die and leave us in peace.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Ray fashioned a bildungsroman that charts the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of Apu, a boy who moves from rural Bengal to Calcutta, as his country dramatically changes in the early 20th century.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 25 June 2025
Most important, their youth makes Industry a financial bildungsroman.
—Nina Li Coomes, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Bildungsroman.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bildungsroman. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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