Biographical

/ˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪkəl/

adjectiveIntermediate📊CommonDescriptive
1 meaning2 questions

Definitions

1

Concerning or relating to the details of a person's life.

/ˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪkəl/

adjectiveneutralIntermediate
Descriptive

Relating to a biography or the life of a person.

The film offered a biographical account of the artist's struggles.

💡 Simply: Describing someone's life story.

More Examples

2

He provided a detailed biographical sketch of his subject.

How It's Used

Literary

"She wrote a biographical novel about her grandmother's life."

Historical

"The biographical details provided in the letter were fascinating."

From "biography" + "-al". "Biography" itself comes from Greek "bios" (life) and "graphein" (to write).

The usage of 'biographical' has increased with the rise of biographies as a popular literary form.

Memory tip

Think 'bio' (life) + 'graphical' (described).

Word Origin

LanguageGreek
Original meaning

"bios (life) + graphein (to write)"

biographical detailsbiographical informationbiographical novelbiographical sketch

Common misspellings

biograhicalbiographcalbiografical

Usage

20%Spoken
80%Written