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 represents 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
She is also set to release her memoir, with a title and release date yet to be announced, that chronicles her life, largely ignoring her time on ANTM, instead focusing on her childhood and her family, including her mother, who died in 2022.
—Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2026
Nureyev loved working with Binda, as Cunningham wrote in his memoir.
—Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 7 Mar. 2026
This tender, candid multimedia archive will blend essay and memoir, and nostalgia with a contemporary curiosity.
—Literary Hub, 5 Mar. 2026
The use of a memoir as a framing device isn’t a particularly original idea, and the sight of Tommy continuing to tap away at the keyboard while riding on a canal barge is borderline laughable.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 5 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for memoir
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Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2026
Nureyev loved working with Binda, as Cunningham wrote in his memoir.
—Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 7 Mar. 2026
This tender, candid multimedia archive will blend essay and memoir, and nostalgia with a contemporary curiosity.
—Literary Hub, 5 Mar. 2026
The use of a memoir as a framing device isn’t a particularly original idea, and the sight of Tommy continuing to tap away at the keyboard while riding on a canal barge is borderline laughable.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 5 Mar. 2026
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 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
memoir
noun
mem·oir
ˈmem-ˌwär 
-ˌwȯ(ə)r
1
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