biography meaning of the word

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a written account of another person's life: the biography of Byron by Marchand.

an account in biographical form of an organization, society, theater, animal, etc.

such writings collectively.

the writing of biography as an occupation or field of endeavor.

Origin of biography

Words nearby biography.

• biographical
• biographize
• bioindustry

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use biography in a sentence

Barrett didn’t say anything on Tuesday to contradict our understanding of her ideological leanings based on her past rulings, past statements and biography .

Republicans, meanwhile, focused mostly on her biography — including her role as a working mother of seven and her Catholic faith — and her credentials, while offering few specifics about her record as a law professor and judge.

She delivered an inspiring biography at one point, reflecting on the sacrifice her mother made to emigrate to the United States.

As Walter Isaacson pointed out in his biography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin proposed the postal system as a vital network to bond together the 13 disparate colonies.

Serving that end, the book is not an in-depth biography as much as a summary of Galileo’s life and science, plus a thorough recounting of the events leading up to his famous trial.

The Amazon biography for an author named Papa Faal mentions both Gambia and lists a military record that matches the FBI report.

For those unfamiliar with Michals, an annotated biography and useful essays are included.

Did you envision your Pryor biography as extending your previous investigation—aesthetically and historically?

But Stephen Kotkin's new biography reveals a learned despot who acted cunningly to take advantage of the times.

Watching novelists insult one another is one of the primary pleasures of his biography .

He also published two volumes of American biography , a work which his death abridged.

Mme. de Chaulieu gave her husband the three children designated in the duc's biography .

The biography of great men always has been, and always will be read with interest and profit.

I like biography far better than fiction myself: fiction is too free.

The Bookman: "A more entertaining narrative whether in biography or fiction has not appeared in recent years."

British Dictionary definitions for biography

/ ( baɪˈɒɡrəfɪ ) /

an account of a person's life by another

such accounts collectively

Derived forms of biography

• biographer , noun
• biographical ( ˌbaɪəˈɡræfɪk ə l ) or archaic biographic , adjective
• biographically , adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for biography

The story of someone's life. The Life of Samuel Johnson , by James Boswell , and Abraham Lincoln , by Carl Sandburg , are two noted biographies. The story of the writer's own life is an autobiography .

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Definition of 'biography'

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biography in British English

Biography in american english, examples of 'biography' in a sentence biography, cobuild collocations biography, trends of biography.

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Definition of biography noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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Biography Definition

• life-history
• curriculum-vitae
• prosopography

Other Word Forms of Biography

Origin of biography.

From modern Latin biographia , formed from Ancient Greek βίος (bios, “life”) + γράφω (graphō, “write”).

From Wiktionary

Late Greek biographiā Greek bio- bio- Greek -graphiā -graphy

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Biography Sentence Examples

A biography was published by Le Laboureur, Histoire du mareschal de Guebriant, in 1656.

There is no good modern biography of Maecenas.

See Smiles, Industrial Biography (1879).

The standard biography is that by John Morley (1881).

Upon these sources is based the biography of the king by Plutarch.

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Words Starting With

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• biographing
• biographise
• biographising
• biographist
• biographize
• biographized
• biographying
• biohazard-symbol
• biohazardous

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bi·og·ra·phy

Bi•og•ra•phy.

• Bandaranaike
• Beauharnais
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• biogenetic law
• biogenetics
• biogenic amine
• biogeochemical
• biogeochemistry
• biogeographer
• biogeographic
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• biographical intelligence
• biographize
• biohazard suit
• biohazardous
• bioidentical
• bioindustry
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What Is Biography? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Biography definition.

A  biography  (BYE-og-ruh-fee) is a written account of one person’s life authored by another person. A biography includes all pertinent details from the subject’s life, typically arranged in a chronological order. The word  biography  stems from the Latin  biographia , which succinctly explains the word’s definition:  bios  = “life” +  graphia  = “write.”

Since the advent of the written word, historical writings have offered information about real people, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that biographies evolved into a separate literary genre.  Autobiographies  and memoirs fall under the broader biography genre, but they are distinct literary forms due to one key factor: the subjects themselves write these works. Biographies are popular source materials for documentaries, television shows, and motion pictures.

The History of Biographies

The biography form has its roots in Ancient Rome and Greece. In 44 BCE, Roman writer Cornelius Nepos published  Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae  ( Lives of the Generals ), one of the earliest recorded biographies. In 80 CE, Greek writer Plutarch released  Parallel Lives , a sweeping work consisting of 48 biographies of famous men. In 121 CE, Roman historian Suetonius wrote  De vita Caesarum  ( On the Lives of the Caesars ), a series of 12 biographies detailing the lives of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. These were among the most widely read biographies of their time, and at least portions of them have survived intact over the millennia.

During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church had a notable influence on biographies. Historical, political, and cultural biographies fell out of favor. Biographies of religious figures—including saints, popes, and church founders—replaced them. One notable exception was Italian painter/architect Giorgio Vasari’s 1550 biography,  The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , which was immensely popular. In fact, it is one of the first examples of a bestselling book.

Still, it wasn’t until the 18th century that authors began to abandon multiple subjects in a single work and instead focus their research and writing on one subject. Scholars consider James Boswell’s 1791  The Life of Samuel Johnson  to be the first modern biography. From here, biographies were established as a distinct literary genre, separate from more general historical writing.

As understanding of psychology and sociology grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries, biographies further evolved, offering up even more comprehensive pictures of their subjects. Authors who played major roles in this contemporary approach to biographing include Lytton Strachey, Gamaliel Bradford, and Robert Graves.

Types of Biographies

While all biographical works chronicle the lives of real people, writers can present the information in several different ways.

• Popular biographies are life histories written for a general readership.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot and  Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer are two popular examples.
• Critical biographies discuss the relationship between the subject’s life and the work they produced or were involved in; for example,  The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune  by Conor O’Clery and  Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump  by Martha Brockenbrough.
• Historical biographies put greater understanding on how the subject’s life and contributions affected or were affected by the times in which they lived; see  John Adams  by David McCullough and  Catherine the Great  by Peter K. Massie.
• Literary biographies concentrate almost exclusively on writers and artists, blending a conventional  narrative  of the historical facts of the subject’s life with an exploration of how these facts impacted their creative output. Some examples include  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  by Nancy Milford and  Jackson Pollock: An American Saga  by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh.
• Reference biographies are more scholarly writings, usually written by multiple authors and covering multiple lives around a single topic. They verify facts, provide background details, and contribute supplemental information resources, like bibliographies, glossaries, and historical documents; for example,  Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007  and the  Dictionary of Canadian Biography .
• Fictional biographies, or biographical novels, like  The Other Boleyn Girl  by Philippa Gregory, incorporate creative license into the retelling of a real person’s story by taking on the structure and freedoms of a novel. The term can also describe novels in which authors give an abundance of background information on their characters, to the extent that the novel reads more like a biography than fiction. An example of this is George R.R. Martin’s  Fire and Blood , a novel detailing the history of a royal family from his popular  A Song of Ice and Fire

Biographies and Filmed Entertainment

Movie makers and television creators frequently produce biographical stories, either as dramatized productions based on real people or as nonfiction accounts.

Documentary

This genre is a nonfictional movie or television show that uses historical records to tell the story of a subject. The subject might be a one person or a group of people, or it might be a certain topic or theme. To present a biography in a visually compelling way, documentaries utilize archival footage, recreations, and interviews with subjects, scholars, experts, and others associated with the subject.

Famous film documentaries include  Grey Gardens,  a biography of two of Jacqueline Kennedy’s once-wealthy cousins, who, at the time of filming, lived in squalor in a condemned mansion in the Hamptons; and  I Am Not Your Negro , a biography of the life and legacy of pioneering American author James Baldwin.

Television documentary series tell one story over the course of several episodes, like  The Jinx :  The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst , a biography of the real estate heir and alleged serial killer that focused on his suspected crimes. There are many nonfiction television shows that use a documentary format, but subjects typically change from one episode to the next, such as A&E’s  Biography  and PBS’s  POV .

These films are biographical motion pictures, written by screenwriters and performed by actors. They often employ a certain amount of creative liberty in their interpretation of a real life. This is largely done to maintain a feasible runtime; capturing all of the pivotal moments of a subject’s life in a 90- or 120-minute movie is all but impossible. So, filmmakers might choose to add, eliminate, or combine key events and characters, or they may focus primarily on one or only a few aspects of the subject’s life. Some popular examples:  Coal Miner’s Daughter , a biography of country music legend Loretta Lynn;  Malcom X , a biopic centered on the civil rights leader of the same name; and  The King’s Speech , a dramatization of Prince Albert’s efforts to overcome a stutter and ascend the English throne.

Semi-fictionalized account

This approach takes a real-life event and interprets or expands it in ways that stray beyond what actually happened. This is done for entertainment and to build the story so it fits the filmmaker’s vision or evolves into a longer form, such as a multi-season television show. These accounts sometimes come with the disclaimer that they are “inspired by true events.” Examples of semi-fictionalized accounts are the TV series  Orange Is the New Black ,  Masters of Sex , and  Mozart of the Jungle —each of which stem from at least one biographical element, but showrunners expounded upon to provide many seasons of entertainment.

The Functions of Biography

Biographies inform readers about the life of a notable person. They are a way to introduce readers to the work’s subject—the historical details, the subject’s motivations and psychological underpinnings, and their environment and the impact they had, both in the short and long term.

Because the author is somewhat removed from their subject, they can offer a more omniscient, third-person narrative account. This vantage point allows the author to put certain events into a larger context; compare and contrast events, people, and behaviors predominant in the subject’s life; and delve into psychological and sociological themes of which the subject may not have been aware.

Also, a writer structures a biography to make the life of the subject interesting and readable. Most biographers want to entertain as well as inform, so they typically use a traditional  plot  structure—an introduction,  conflict , rising of tension, a climax, a resolution, and an ending—to give the life story a narrative shape. While the ebb and flow of life is a normal day-to-day rhythm, it doesn’t necessarily make for entertaining reading. The job of the writer, then, becomes one of shaping the life to fit the elements of a good plot.

Writers Known for Biographies

Many modern writers have dedicated much of their careers to biographies, such as:

• Kitty Kelley, author of  Jackie Oh! An Intimate Biography; His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra ; and  The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• Antonia Fraser, author of  Mary Queen of Scots ;  Cromwell; Our Chief of Men ; and  The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
• David McCullough, author of  The Path Between the Seas; Truman ; and  John Adams
• Andrew Morton, author of  Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words; Madonna ; and  Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography
• Alison Weir, author of  The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God; Queen of England ; and  Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Examples of Biographies

1. James Boswell,  The Life of Samuel Johnson

The biography that ushered in the modern era of true-life writing,  The Life of Samuel Johnson  covered the entirety of its subject’s life, from his birth to his status as England’s preeminent writer to his death. Boswell was a personal acquaintance of Johnson, so he was able to draw on voluminous amounts of personal conversations the two shared.

What also sets this biography apart is, because Boswell was a contemporary of Johnson, readers see Johnson in the context of his own time. He wasn’t some fabled figure that a biographer was writing about centuries later; he was someone to whom the author had access, and Boswell could see the real-world influence his subject had on life in the here and now.

2. Sylvia Nasar,  A Beautiful Mind

Nasar’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography of mathematician John Nash introduced legions of readers to Nash’s remarkable life and genius. The book opens with Nash’s childhood and follows him through his education, career, personal life, and struggles with schizophrenia. It ends with his acceptance of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics. In addition to a Pulitzer nomination,  A Beautiful Mind  won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, was a  New York Times  bestseller, and provided the basis for the Academy Award-winning 2001 film of the same name.

3. Catherine Clinton,  Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom

Clinton’s biography of the abolitionist icon is a large-scale epic that chronicles Tubman’s singular life. It starts at her birth in the 1820s as the slave Araminta Ross, continuing through her journey to freedom; her pivotal role in the Underground Railroad; her Moses-like persona; and her death in 1913.

Because Tubman could not read or write, she left behind no letters, diaries, or other personal papers in her own hand and voice. Clinton reconstructed Tubman’s history entirely through other source material, and historians often cite this work as the quintessential biography of Tubman’s life.

4. Megan Mayhew Bergman,  Almost Famous Women

Almost Famous Women  is not a biography in the strictest sense of the word; it is a fictional interpretation of real-life women. Each short story revolves around a woman from history with close ties to fame, such as movie star Marlene Dietrich, Standard Oil heiress Marion “Joe” Carstairs, aviatrix Beryl Markham, Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly, and Lord Byron’s daughter Allegra. Mayhew Bergman imagines these colorful women in equally colorful episodes that put them in a new light—a light that perhaps offers them the honor and homage that history denied them.

Further Resources on Biography

Newsweek  compiled their picks for the  75 Best Biographies of All Time .

The Open Education Database has a list of  75 Biographies to Read Before You Die .

Goodreads put together a list of readers’  best biography selections .

If you’re looking to write biographies,  Infoplease  has instructions for writing shorter pieces, while  The Writer   has practical advice for writing manuscript-length bios.

Ranker  collected  a comprehensive list of famous biographers .

Related Terms

• Autobiography
• Short Story

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biography noun

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What does the noun biography mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun biography . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

How common is the noun biography ?

How is the noun biography pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun biography come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun biography is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for biography is from 1661, in the writing of John Fell, bishop of Oxford.

biography is a borrowing from Latin.

Etymons: Latin biographia .

Nearby entries

• biognosy, n. 1880
• biograph, n. 1825–
• biograph, v. 1776–
• biographee, n. 1812–
• biographer, n. 1644–
• biographic, adj. 1752–
• biographical, adj. 1668–
• biographically, adv. ?1719–
• biographist, n. a1661–
• biographize, v. 1793–
• biography, n. 1661–
• biography, v. 1794–
• biographying, n. 1858–
• biohacker, n. 1988–
• biohacking, n. 1992–
• biohazard, n. 1965–
• biohazardous, adj. 1973–
• bioherm, n. 1928–
• biohermal, adj. 1937–
• bioidentical, adj. 1995–
• bioimaging, n. 1983–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for biography, n..

biography, n. was revised in November 2010

biography, n. was last modified in July 2023

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Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into biography, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of biography, n. were published in:

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Citation details

Factsheet for biography, n., browse entry.

biography (n.)

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 ).

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

Entries linking to biography

"a memoir of a person written by himself," 1797, from auto- + biography . Related: Autobiographical ; autobiographer ; autobiographic .

"one who writes an account of the life and actions of a person," 1715, from biography + -er (1). Earlier was biographist (1660s). Biographee for the one written about is from 1841.

Of every great and eminent character, part breaks forth into public view, and part lies hid in domestic privacy. Those qualities which have been exerted in any known and lasting performances may, at any distance of time, be traced and estimated; but silent excellencies are soon forgotten; and those minute peculiarities which discriminate every man from all others, if the are not recorded by those whom personal knowledge enabled to observe them, are irrecoverably lost. [Johnson, "Life of Sir Thomas Browne," 1756]

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Dictionary entries near biography

biogeography

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Synonyms of biography

• as in memoir
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Thesaurus Definition of biography

Synonyms & Similar Words

• autobiography
• hagiography
• psychobiography
• character sketch
• pathography

Thesaurus Entries Near biography

biographies

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/biography. Accessed 13 Mar. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on biography

Nglish: Translation of biography for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of biography for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about biography

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• Entertainment
• <i>The Zone of Interest</i> Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer Said What No One Else Dared to Say

The Zone of Interest Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer Said What No One Else Dared to Say

S ometime between John Cena’s nude tribute to costume design and Emily Blunt’s playful scolding of Ryan Gosling for “Kensplaining,” at Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards , Jonathan Glazer accepted the Best International Feature Oscar for The Zone of Interest . “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present—not to say ‘look what they did then’; rather, look what we do now,’” said the writer and director of the German-language British production, in which a Nazi commandant and his family lead unbothered lives next door to the unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz. “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst… Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel, or the ongoing attack on Gaza.” Glazer posed a question to the telecast's global audience: “How do we resist?”

His was not the only political statement made on the Oscars stage this year. From Jimmy Kimmel ’s message of support for entertainment unions, interspersed throughout a painstakingly safe opening monologue, to 20 Days in Mariupol writer-director Mstyslav Chernov’s emotional appeal for Ukraine, many of the event’s participants had current events on their minds. Yet only Glazer explicitly addressed the bloodshed in Gaza and Israel—a devastating conflict that has dominated global headlines for the past five months but whose rights, wrongs, and collateral damage are a rare subject of disagreement, best avoided in public, within a predominantly liberal industry. His speech was a moment of moral courage inextricably intertwined with his film’s urgent message.

The Zone of Interest is, as Glazer noted, a portrait of dehumanization taken to a genocidal extreme. Everyone knows (even if a vocal minority, still in thrall to Nazism, continues to deny) what happened within the walls of German concentration camps. Images of gas chambers, mass graves, and emaciated bodies in striped uniforms have become disturbingly familiar reminders of the suffering millions of Jews and other outsiders endured under Hitler's Third Reich. Each year brings another crop of movies and TV shows featuring cartoonishly evil Nazi villains. Yet The Zone of Interest flips perspectives to the other side of the mirror that is dehumanization. It illustrates how numbness to the torture, starvation, and death of innocent people you’ve convinced yourself are less than human turns even the most passive enablers of that violence into monsters. The more normal Commander Rudolf Höss’ (Christian Friedel) family life seems, the more ghastly it becomes.

So it stands to reason that Glazer would use a stage where Vanessa Redgrave expressed similar sentiments in 1978—and on which victors regularly opine, to mixed reviews, on contentious issues ranging from gender inequity to racism to war —to condemn an ongoing Israeli bombardment that has already cost more than 30,000 Palestinians their lives as well as Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 massacre. The filmmaker’s reference to an occupation that predates the current outburst of violence by decades grounded his assessment in history, in the same way that The Zone of Interest uses the atrocities of the past to speak to a present that has yet to learn the Holocaust’s lessons.

Glazer was taking a real risk by speaking up for Palestinians on Hollywood’s biggest stage. In November, Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency and actress Melissa Barrera was fired from a role in Scream VII for expressing certain pro-Palestinian views . On social media, a number of prominent Israel hawks are already attacking Glazer and misrepresenting his speech as a renunciation of his Jewish identity.

But if he hadn’t read his deliberate, pre-written statement, the entire telecast might well have gone on as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening in the Middle East. While high-profile attendees including Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish, and Ramy Youssef wore Artists4Ceasefire pins , ABC’s red carpet interviewers ignored them. (“We’re calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We’re calling for peace and lasting justice for the people of Palestine,” Youssef explained to Variety .) Cillian Murphy, accepting the Best Actor award for portraying a man who created the world's most lethal weapon of mass dehumanization, made a conspicuously vague call for peace: “For better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world,” he said. “I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers.”

For as long as popular artists have been speaking their minds at awards-show podiums, a contingent of viewers and pundits has admonished them to keep politics out of what is supposed to be a fun night. The thing is, politics are at the core of the art that the Oscars (and all entertainment awards) exist to celebrate. Even Barbie is political. So there’s certainly no separating the images of war conjured by Oppenheimer and 20 Days in Mariupol and The Zone of Interest from the carnage in Gaza. How refreshing to see a director honored whose humanism trumps Hollywood taboo.

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Meaning of biography in Essential American English Dictionary

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(Definition of biography from the Webster's Essential Mini Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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Ramadan 2024: When does it begin and what are the rules?

Celebration marks ninth month in the islamic calendar when the quran is believed to have been revealed to the prophet muhammed, article bookmarked.

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Muslims around the globe will begin observing the holy month of Ramadan , a period of deep spiritual reflection and fasting that takes place every year.

The festival begins with the sighting of the crescent moon, which usually appears one night after a new moon. In 2024, Ramadan will begin on Sunday 10 March. One of the five pillars of Islam - along with faith, prayer, charity, and the pilgrimage - Ramadan commemorates the Quran first being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, a sacred moment honoured with abstinence between sunrise and sunset.

The month of Ramadan will see Muslims all over the world fasting and praying , before breaking their fast at sundown alongside family and friends.

Here’s a look at what the ritual means for Muslims, why worshippers fast, and why the date alters from one year to another.

What is Ramadan?

Chapter 2, Verse 185 of the Quran explains the purpose of the ritual: “The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran; a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion (of right and wrong).

“And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days.

“Allah desires for your ease; He desires not hardship for you; and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful.”

The word of Allah is said to have been revealed to the prophet on “Laylat al-Qadr” (the Night of Power).

The tablets of Ibrahim, the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Quran were sent down on the 1st, 6th, 12th, 13th and 24th days of Ramadan, according to the faith.

There are a few ways to greet someone who’s celebrating Ramadan this year. A saying familiar to many Muslims around the globe is, ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ which simply means ‘Blessed Ramadan ’. Another commonly used term is, ‘Ramadan Kareem’, which translates to ‘Generous Ramadan’, both terms are from Arabic origins.

When is Ramadan?

Ramadan begins on Sunday 10 March 2024 and is expected to conclude on Tuesday 9 April 2024, meaning Eid al-Fitr is likely to fall on Wednesday 10 April 2024.

Why does the date vary each year?

The Islamic calendar is lunar, meaning each month begins with a new astronomical moon. As lunar months are shorter than solar, the Islamic calendar does not correspond with the Gregorian calendar followed in the West, so that means Ramadan occurs around 10 days earlier every year.

The period takes place in the ninth month of the Islamic year. Its precise date also varies from country to country by about a day, depending on when the moon is sighted.

Followers of the faith are encouraged to check the precise timings of sunrise and sunset with their local mosques to ensure the fast is not inadvertently broken prematurely.

Why do Muslims fast?

​Ramadan is a holy month dedicated to prayer and reading the Quran. Generosity and giving to worthy causes and neighbours are encouraged.

It is a period for reflection, self-restraint, and warmth intended to bring Muslims closer to Allah, hence the abstention from earthly distractions like food and water, cigarettes, and sexual activity during daylight hours. A modest meal is taken before dawn known as “suhoor” and after dusk known as “iftar” but nothing whatsoever is consumed in between, not even water.

Fasting during Ramadan is a requirement for all Muslims from a young age, in some cases beginning as early as 10.

Those who are too ill to fast can be exempted if participating would mean endangering their health, as can the elderly, those suffering from a mental illness, those who are travelling, and women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or menstruating.

What is Eid al-Fitr?

Eid al-Fitr is the “festival of the breaking of the fast” and marks the end of Ramadan every year.

Muslims wish each other a happy Eid during the celebrations by saying “Eid Mubarak” and gathering with family and friends to feast and pray together.

The festival, which can last for up to three days, also sees people donating to charity as part of the celebrations.

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Israel-Hamas war

House vote on TikTok ban bill

Special counsel Robert Hur testifies on Biden classified documents probe

By Maureen Chowdhury , Shania Shelton , Antoinette Radford, Adrienne Vogt , Michelle Shen and Isabelle D'Antonio, CNN

"I did not exonerate" Biden, Hur says in tense exchange with Rep. Jayapal

From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

Robert Hur explicitly said he "did not exonerate” President Joe Biden at the end of his yearlong special counsel investigation.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, elicited the comments while tussling with Hur over his conclusions. She claimed Hur “exonerated” Biden, but the special counsel immediately took issue with the term during a tense exchange.

“This lengthy, expensive and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration of President Joe Biden for every document you discussed in your report. You found insufficient evidence that the president violated any laws about possession or retention of classified materials,” Jayapal said. 

“I need to go back and make sure that I take note of a word that you used, ‘exoneration,’” Hur said. “That is not a word that is used in my report and that is not a part of my task as a prosecutor.” 

“You exonerated him,” Jayapal retorted. 

“I did not exonerate him. That word does not appear in the report,” Hur said. 

The result of this back-and-forth is that Jayapal spurred Hur to say something that clearly isn’t helpful for Biden, whom she was aggressively trying to defend.

Jayapal brought this up while arguing Hur didn’t have enough evidence to conclude Biden broke the law, in addition to Hur’s determination that a jury would sympathize with the president because of his age and at-times faltering memory.

Jim Jordan claims Biden was motivated by "pride and money" in talks about classified info with ghostwriter

From CNN’s Holmes Lybrand

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan accused President Joe Biden of being motivated by “pride and money” when he allegedly disclosed classified information with a ghostwriter working on his biography. 

Biden “shared information with his ghostwriter,” Jordan said, “the guy who was helping Joe Biden get $8 million,” referring to the advance Biden received for his book. Jordan said the money was Biden’s motive “to disclose classified information, to retain classified information.” 

According to special counsel Robert Hur’s report, Biden “had strong motivations” to keep notebooks which contained classified information and “consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part.”

Donald Trump’s alleged display of classified information to people working on the memoir of Mark Meadows, including the book’s ghostwriter, in July 2021 is cited in the classified documents indictment against the former president.

“These are the papers,” Trump says in an audio recording referring to a potential attack plan on Iran.

Hur insists politics "played no part whatsoever" in describing Biden's memory

From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

After repeated questioning over his decision to include language about Joe Biden’s memory in his report, Robert Hur said omitting his analysis of the president’s memory would have made the report “incomplete and improper.”

Democrats have sparred with Hur over his analysis of how a jury could perceive Biden to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Under questioning from Rep. Adam Schiff , Hur repeatedly said politics “played no part whatsoever” in his decision-making, and that he was tasked only with writing a “confidential” report for the attorney general.

“What you were suggesting is that I needed to provide a different version of my report that would be fit for public release,” Hur said. “That is nowhere in the rules. I was to prepare a confidential report that was comprehensive and thorough.”

Schiff, a California Democrat, retorted: “You understood that you made a choice. That was a political choice. It was the wrong choice.” 

“What you are suggesting is that I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the attorney general for political reasons,” Hur said.

Democrat accuses Hur of trying to help Trump get reelected in hopes of nabbing choice appointment

From CNN’s Devan Cole

A Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee accused special counsel Robert Hur of helping Donald Trump’s presidential campaign by issuing a damning report about President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents so he could benefit professionally from a potential Trump presidency.

“Are you a member of the Federalist Society?” Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson asked Hur during a testy exchange, referring to the influential conservative legal group whose members have been picked by Trump for some key seats on the federal judiciary. 

“I am not a member of the Federalist Society,” Hur responded.

“But you are a Republican though, aren't you?” the congressman asked, to which Hur answered yes.

“And you’re doing everything you can do to get President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice, isn’t that correct?” Johnson said. “Congressman, I have no such aspirations, I can assure you. And I can tell you that partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work,” Hur said.

While in office, Trump appointed Hur as US attorney in Maryland, and he later served in Trump’s Justice Department as the principal associate deputy attorney general.

Schiff slams Hur for disparaging Biden in report: "That was a political choice"

Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, slammed special counsel Robert Hur over the language he used to characterize President Joe Biden in his classified documents investigation report.

Schiff referred back to Hur's opening statement where the special counsel said he did not disparage the president in his report.

"But of course you did disparage the president," Schiff said.

The California Democrat, who is running for a Senate seat, then said that Hur had to have known the political impact his report would have upon its public release and that he could have written it in more objective way.

"And you could've chosen just to comment on the president's particular recall vis-a-vis a document or a set of documents, but you decided to go further and make a generalized statement about his memory, didn't you?" Schiff asked Hur.

Hur responded by saying that while he could've omitted comments about the president's memory, it would've made the report "incomplete" and insisted that politics did not play a role in his writing of the report.

Hur says he didn't determine Biden's guilt or innocence — just that he wouldn't win at trial

In an exchange with Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, Robert Hur said that he did not make a determination as special counsel as to whether President Joe Biden was guilty or innocent.

“In this case, did you reach a conclusion that this man was outright innocent,” Issa asked.

“That conclusion is not reflected in my report, sir,” Hur responded.

Issa followed up, asking, “So you did not reach that conclusion, or it would have been in your report?”

“I viewed my task of explaining my decision to the attorney general as being based on my judgment and my assessment of the evidence would have would a conviction at trial be the probable outcome,” Hur said.

“I just want to make sure the record is complete in that because I think it’s extremely important,” Issa said. “You did not reach an idea that he had committed no wrong, you reached a conclusion that you would not prevail at trial and therefore did not take it forward. Is that correct?”

“Correct, congressman,” Hur said.

Top Democrats on Senate Judiciary Committee attack Hur’s comments on Biden's mental acuity as "gratuitous"

From CNN's Sam Fossum and Manu Raju

Top Senate Democrats slammed special counsel Robert Hur’s report as “gratuitous” and argued it was not his responsibility to make assessments about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity. 

Sen. Dick Durbin , the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chair of the Judiciary Committee, swiped at Hur on Tuesday. 

“One word comes to mind: gratuitous. It's just a political observation that was totally unnecessary for the job he was assigned,” Durbin told CNN.

“There's a clear difference here in treatment of these classified documents by President Biden and President (Donald) Trump. President Trump denied it and tried to evade it and may have concealed some evidence. I don't know. President Biden, on the other hand, has been found to be cleared in terms of any future action by the Department of Justice,” he said. 

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal , another member of the Judiciary Committee, also criticized Hur’s comments about Biden's memory as being “worthless.”

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley pushed back against the Democrats' criticism, telling CNN that Hur had a responsibility to explain why he did not recommend charges.

When asked about the contrast between Biden’s cooperation with law enforcement and Trump’s unwillingness, Hawley defended the former president. “The way the Biden Justice Department has handled this, I think completely bulldozes their case against Trump,” Hawley argued. 

Hur makes clear investigation was done under his guidance and the report written in his own words

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from New York, asked special counsel Robert Hur whether he felt free and "unrestrained" by Attorney General Merrick Garland to potentially bring charges against President Joe Biden — if warranted.

Hur said while he was aware of the current Office of Legal Counsel policy of prohibiting sitting presidents from being charged with federal crimes, the investigative efforts were his own.

"But apart from that, what I can tell you congresswoman is that the investigative steps that we took were my own, the judgment was my own and the words in the report are my own," Hur said.

Hur says he could not charge Biden with criminal violation because case missed "intent element"

From CNN's Michelle Shen

Special counsel Robert Hur disputed Rep. Matt Gaetz's characterization that all the elements necessary for a federal criminal violation were met, emphasizing that President Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents lacked "intent."

In a response to Gaetz, a Florida Republican, Hur said:

"I need to disagree with at least one thing that you said, which is that I found that all of the elements were met. One of the elements of the relevant mishandling statute is the intent element."

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