ego
Pluralegos
- 1A person's sense of their own worth and importance; self-esteem, or an inflated sense of self-importance.
His ego couldn't handle being corrected in front of the whole team.
Her ego demanded that her name appear first on every report, even ones she barely touched.
UsageCommon pairs: a big ego, an inflated ego, massage someone's ego.
Similarpride, vanity, self-esteem, conceit, self-importance
- 2In Freudian theory, the part of the mind that deals with the outside world and balances instinctive desires against conscience.
Like a mediator standing between a person's desires and reality, brokering a workable compromise.
The ego works to reconcile inner desires with the limits of the outside world.
Freud described how the ego manages pressure from both instinct and conscience.
Note
Freud's own word was simply Ich, the German pronoun "I" turned into a noun. His translator chose the Latin ego to render it, which makes the term a doublet of English I. Within the theory it is, in Calvin S. Hall's A Primer of Freudian Psychology (1954), "the executive of the personality," governed by the reality principle. It works between the demands of the id and the constraints of the superego, and is regularly named alongside the id.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Freud used Ich, a nominalization of the German pronoun meaning “I”. en.wiktionary.org
- Freud’s translator rendered his German term with the Latin term ego. en.wikipedia.org
- English ego and I are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- Calvin S. Hall wrote A Primer of Freudian Psychology, first published in 1954. catalog.mercyhurst.edu
- Hall calls the ego “the executive of the personality” and says it is governed by the reality principle. en.wiktionary.org
- In Freud’s theory, the ego mediates the demands of the id, the superego, and external reality. webspace.ship.edu
- 3In spiritual and philosophical teaching, the sense of being a separate self, an 'I' attached to its own thoughts and desires, that practice aims to quiet or rise above.
Many meditation traditions hold that suffering eases only when the ego, with its endless wanting, is seen through.
After years of silent retreats, he described moments in which his ego seemed to dissolve into everything around him.
Similarself
Note
Spiritual practice treats this self as an obstacle rather than a faculty. Where the psychologist's ego does the useful work of mediating with the world, this one is something to quiet, see through or let dissolve. Keep it apart from self-esteem: a person with a humble opinion of themselves still has an ego in this sense, because what is meant is the feeling of being separate at all.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- In psychoanalytic theory, the ego mediates between internal demands and the external world. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meaning
- 4The individual from whose point of view a family tree is drawn, and the reference point relative to whom all kinship terms are defined.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of ego apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
English ego comes from Latin ego ("I"). Freud used German Ich, formed from the pronoun ich ("I"), as a noun, and his translator chose ego for it. English ego, I, and Ich are doublets.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- English ego is borrowed from Latin ego, meaning "I". en.wiktionary.org
- Freud used the German term Ich as a noun. en.wiktionary.org
- German Ich is a noun formed from the pronoun ich, meaning "I". en.wiktionary.org
- Freud's translator chose ego to render Ich. en.wikipedia.org
- The English words ego, I, and Ich are doublets. en.wiktionary.org