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self

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

One individual's personality, character, demeanor.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sehlf
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɛlf

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.

  2. The subject of one's own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts.

  3. Your consciousness of your own identity

  4. A person considered as a unique individual

  5. An individual person as the object of the person's own reflective consciousness (plural selves).

  6. A freed slave surname originating as an occupation.

adjective

  1. Having its own or a single nature or character throughout, as in colour, composition, etc., without addition or change; of the same kind; unmixed.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.

Used this way, self is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use self

  • “You need to learn to be your true self and not pretend to be someone else.”noun

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • selfishadjectiveDerived adjective

    Concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others.

  • selflessadjectiveDerived adjective

    Showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • self-accusationnounCompound term

    An admission that you have failed to do or be something you know you should do or be.

  • self acceptancenounCompound term

    An acceptance of yourself as you are, warts and all.

  • self-abnegationnounCompound term

    Renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others.

  • self-aggrandizingadjectiveCompound term

    Of or relating to or characteristic of self-aggrandizement.

  • self-analysisnounCompound term

    A penetrating examination of your own beliefs and motives.

  • self-annihilationnounCompound term

    The act of killing yourself.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.