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selfishly

adverb

Simple meaning

In an egotistical way.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sehlfihshlee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɛlfɪʃli

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.

adverb

  1. In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.

  2. In an egotistical manner

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.

Used this way, selfishly is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

selfishly motivatedselfishly interestedselfishly ambitiousselfishly wantedselfishly concernedselfishly glad

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • selfishadjectiveBase word

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

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • selfishnessnounDerived noun

    Stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: in a selfish manner

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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.