self
- 1The person you are inside, the 'you' that thinks, feels, and knows itself.
Like looking in a mirror inside your mind to see who you are.
Quiet time alone helps me listen to my inner self.
He wrote in his journal to get to know his deeper self.
UsageSay a sense of self. More than one is selves.
Similarego, identity, psyche, soul, being
Note
- 2The kind of person someone is: their character and the way they act.
Like a fingerprint, but for how someone acts and feels.
After a good night's sleep, he was back to his cheerful self.
She wasn't her normal self at the party last night.
UsageSay he's back to his old self.
Similarpersonality, character, nature, side, persona
Note
- 3A person's own gain or advantage, put before other things.
Like always taking the biggest slice of cake for yourself.
He thinks only of self and never helps anyone else.
Putting self before family cost him their trust.
UsageSay service above self.
Oppositealtruism, selflessness
- 4A joking or business way to say 'myself,' used on checks, tickets and forms.
Like signing a note 'to me,' but using a fancy old word instead.
The ticket will admit self and one guest.
Party of four tonight: self, my wife, and our two boys.
UsageUsed alone without *a* or *my*: payable to self.
Similarmyself
Note
Less common meanings
- 5The very same, not a different one.
I am made of that self mettle as my sister.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”Here, self means the very same.Note
- 6Himself, herself, itself or themselves: the very person just named.
This argument was put forward by the defendant self.
Here, self means himself, the defendant in person.Note
- 7Belonging to the person themselves, their own.
Note
- 8The body's own cells and molecules, which the immune system normally does not attack.
- 9Belonging to the body's own cells or tissues, not to anything foreign.
- 10All one color, or made of one kind of material all the way through, with nothing else mixed in.
- 11To make a plant form seeds with its own pollen, or to breed plants only within the same line.
- 12A young plant grown from a flower that pollinated itself.
- 13A flower that is all one color, not spotted or streaked.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Old English self, going back to Proto-Germanic. It is related to German selbst and Dutch zelf.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- English self derives from Old English self and ultimately Proto-Germanic. en.wiktionary.org
- English self is related to German selbst and Dutch zelf. en.wiktionary.org