ˈmemˌwär, -wȧ(r also -wȯ(ə)r or -wȯ(ə) sometimes ˈmēm- or ˈmām- or -ˌmȯ- or -ˌmä- or -ˌmȧ- or ̷ ̷ˈ ̷ ̷ or məmˈw- or məˈm- noun
( -s )
Etymology: French mémoire, from mémoire memory, from Latin memoria — more at memory
1. : an official note or report : memorandum , record
wrote a memoir on the subject for his royal master
2.
a. : a history or narrative composed from or stressing personal experience and acquaintance with the events, scenes, or persons described
a satirical memoir of the city of his birth — Saxe Commins
— usually used in plural
have written memoirs of the event — Ruth McKenney
b. : an autobiographical account often anecdotal or intimate in tone whose focus of attention is usually on the persons, events, or times known to the writer
a best-selling memoir that a duke paid a fortune to keep unpublished — New York Herald Tribune
an autobiographical memoir by the dean of American literary historians — Saturday Review
— usually used in plural
in his memoirs he describes the framework — American Guide Series: Minnesota
a secret emergency fund … for the acquisition of just such memoirs — S.H.Adams
c. : a biography or biographical sketch usually based on personal acquaintance with the subject and sometimes having the character of a memorial
a memoir of his brilliant pupil … who died early — Sarah G. Bowerman
its spirit is so devout as to make it … more a memoir than a biography — A.J.Nock
a memoir … by his colleague — Edmund Wilson
3.
a. : an account of something regarded as noteworthy : a record of investigations of some subject : dissertation , report
the work described and discussed in this memoir represents a first-class investigation — J.A.Steers
b. memoirs plural : the record of the proceedings of a learned society