Georgescu-Roegen used the term bioeconomy to refer to a radical ecological perspective on economics he developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, it has also become a buzzword used by public institutions to announce and describe a supposed current economic and ecological transition. We see in this use an attempt of semantic hijacking of the original term. To support this claim we analyze three different interpretations of the term bioeconomy, presenting each of them as narratives combining distinct visions of future economic development, technical trajectories and imaginaries associated with a particular relationship to nature. Finally, we discuss these narratives in relation to the endorsement they receive by different stakeholders. •Reviews the bioeconomy as defined by N. Georgescu-Roegen in order to discuss the development of the bioeconomy.•Adopts a narrative-based approach in order to identify main narratives as ideal-types.•Compares three main narratives of the bioeconomy: sustainability-oriented, science-oriented, and biomass-oriented.•Science and biomass-oriented narratives are dominating and trying to hijack Georgescu-Roegen’ bioeconomy.