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
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
J. A. Steers
b
memoirs plural
: the record of the proceedings of a learned society
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
Part memoir, part business playbook, and part hero’s journey, Potts’s story begins in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where a teenage fascination with the smell of fiberglass resin led to a lifelong passion for building boats.
—Forbes Books Press Release Official, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
Her brand-new memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, just came out this month, and centers among other things her relationship with her mother, the novelist Erica Jong.
—Memoir Nation
june 30, Literary Hub, 30 June 2025
According to Coles, a memoir by the designer from Letterform Archive is set to be published later this year.
—Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 27 June 2025
His 2007 memoir, A Memoir of a Minor League Baseball All-Star, chronicled a journey of perseverance through war, injuries, and the grind of the minor leagues.
—Jon Paul Hoornstra, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for memoir
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Forbes Books Press Release Official, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
Her brand-new memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, just came out this month, and centers among other things her relationship with her mother, the novelist Erica Jong.
—Memoir Nation
june 30, Literary Hub, 30 June 2025
According to Coles, a memoir by the designer from Letterform Archive is set to be published later this year.
—Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 27 June 2025
His 2007 memoir, A Memoir of a Minor League Baseball All-Star, chronicled a journey of perseverance through war, injuries, and the grind of the minor leagues.
—Jon Paul Hoornstra, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for memoir
Cite this Entry
“Memoir.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memoir. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
memoir
noun
mem·oir
ˈmem-ˌwär 
-ˌwȯ(ə)r
1
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