biographical (adj.)

1738; see biography + -ical. Related: Biographically; biographic (1787).

Entries linking to biographical

1680s, "the histories of individual lives, as a branch of literature," probably from Medieval Latin biographia, from later Greek biographia "description of life" (which was not in classical Greek, bios alone being the word there for it), from Greek bios "life" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live") + graphia "record, account" (see -graphy).

Meaning "a history of someone's life" is from 1791. Meaning "life course of any living being" is from 1854. No one-word verb form has become common; biographise/biographize (1800), biography (1844), biograph (1849) have been tried.

-ical

compound adjectival word-forming element, usually interchangeable with -ic but sometimes with specialized sense (such as historic/historical, politic/political), Middle English, from Late Latin -icalis, from Latin -icus + -alis (see -al (1)). Probably it was needed because the forms in -ic often took on a noun sense (for example physic). Forms in -ical tend to be attested earlier in English than their twins in -ic.

biopic (n.)

also bio-pic, 1951, a contraction of biographical (moving) picture. Frequent from mid-1951 in Billboard magazine and possibly coined by staffers there.

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Definitions of biographical

biographical (adj.)

of or relating to or being biography;

biographical data

Synonyms: biographic

From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near biographical

biogenetic

biogenic

biogeny

biogeography

biographer

biographical

biography

biohazard

biological

biologism

biologist