A memorial account; a history composed from personal experience and memory; an account of transactions or events (usually written in familiar style) as they are remembered by the writer. See History, 2.

A memorial of any individual; a biography; often, a biography written without special regard to method and completeness.

An autobiographical form of writing in which the author gives his or her personal impressions of significant figures or events. This form is different from the autobiography because it does not center around the author's own life and experiences. Early examples of memoirs include the Viscount de Chateaubriand's The Memoirs of Chateaubriand and Giacomo Casanova's History of My Life, while modern memoirs include reminiscences of World War II by Dwight Eisenhower, Viscount Montgomery, and Charles de Gaulle.

An account of something deemed noteworthy; an essay; a record of investigations of any subject; the journals and proceedings of a society.