# memoir

Pronunciation: US say "MEM-wahr" /ˈmɛmˌwɑɹ/; say "MEM-wah" UK /ˈmɛmˌwɑː/, AUS /ˈmemˌwɐː/

## Noun

1. A book in which an author recounts their own life and personal experiences.
   - Simple: A book in which a writer tells the story of their own life.
   - _Her bestselling memoir traced her childhood in postwar Italy._
   - _After retiring, the general published a memoir of his decades in uniform._
2. A narrative in any form in which a writer describes their own personal experiences.
   - Simple: Any kind of story in which writers describe things that happened to them.
   - _The magazine published a memoir in the form of letters home from the front._
   - _Each essay in the collection works as a brief memoir of one summer abroad._
3. A book describing the life of another person, based on personal knowledge of the subject or on accounts from people who knew them.
   - Simple: A book about another person's life, written by someone who knew them well.
   - _His memoir of the composer drew on letters and interviews with close friends._
   - _The aide's memoir of the senator was based on years of working at his side._

## Origin

From French mémoire ("memoir"), from Latin memoria ("memory"). It is a doublet of memoria and memory.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/memoir (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).