Word
biopic
US/ˈbaɪoʊˌpɪk/
UK/bˌaɪəʊpˈɪk/
Definition
n. a movie that tells the true story of a real person's life. It is a mix of the words 'biography' and 'picture'.
n. a biographical motion picture depicting the life of a specific historical or contemporary figure. A portmanteau of 'biography' and 'picture'.
Examples
“The new biopic about the famous singer is very popular.”
“The actor spent months studying old footage to prepare for his role in the upcoming biopic about the scientist.”
“While some critics praised the biopic for its visual style, others argued that it took too many creative liberties with the historical facts of the subject's life.”
Examples
simple
“The new biopic about the famous singer is very popular.”
contextual
“The actor spent months studying old footage to prepare for his role in the upcoming biopic about the scientist.”
complex
“While some critics praised the biopic for its visual style, others argued that it took too many creative liberties with the historical facts of the subject's life.”
Real-World Examples
“The Oscar-winning actor Julianne Moore played Steinem in the 2020 biopic The Glorias.” “Bird won a Pulitzer prize for American Prometheus, a life of the nuclear scientist J Robert Oppenheimer co-written with Martin J Sherwin and the basis for Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning biopic .” Etymology
Clipping of biographical picture; synchronically bio + pic.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/biopic