historiography

American  

[hi-stawr-ee-og-ruh-fee, -stohr-] / hɪˌstɔr iˈɒg rə fi, -ˌstoʊr- /

noun

plural

historiographies

1. the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively.

2. the body of techniques, theories, and principles of historical research and presentation; methods of historical scholarship.

3. the narrative presentation of history based on a critical examination, evaluation, and selection of material from primary and secondary sources and subject to scholarly criteria.

4. an official history.

   medieval historiographies.

---

Other Word Forms

• historiographic adjective
• historiographical adjective
• historiographically adverb

Etymology

Origin of historiography

1560–70; < Middle French historiographie < Greek historiographía. See history, -o-, -graphy

Example Sentences

Her favorite spring semester class was historiography, a study of how historians research and interpret the past.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2025

“He has engaged with the historiography in a way that is clearly the equivalent of a professional historian,” Brooks said.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 16, 2024

Good research requires both types of sources and some attention to historiography, which is the study of how other historians have already interpreted and written about the past.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

The Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko is quoted expanding on the idea, arguing that “a leitmotif of Ukrainian literature, historiography, and philosophy is opposition to the centralized idea of state and universe.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 29, 2022

Chapters 2, 15, 16 and 17 deal with historiography, methodology and philosophy.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton