selfish
- 1Caring chiefly or only about one's own well-being, profit, or pleasure, with little regard for other people.
Her coworkers found her too selfish to share credit for the team's success.
Refusing to help during the emergency struck everyone as a deeply selfish decision.
Similarself-centered, egotistical, inconsiderate, greedy, self-absorbed
Oppositeunselfish, selfless, generous, altruistic
Note
The judgment most speakers mean, and it readily works as a group noun after the. James Hogg's The Three Perils of Woman (1823) sets "the sordid and the selfish" against "the good, the gentle, the kind-hearted." It pairs naturally with nouns of contempt, as in Ben Travers's "selfish cads" in A Cuckoo in the Nest (1922). It is a charge rather than a description, so it rarely sounds neutral.
- 2Treating one's own interest as the measure by which decisions are made.
Economists sometimes assume people act in purely selfish ways when weighing costs and benefits.
A selfish calculation led the firm to abandon the project once profits dipped.
Similarself-interested, self-serving, egoistic
Oppositealtruistic, selfless, unselfish
Note
The neutral, almost technical use: self-interest as the rule for choosing, with no verdict attached. That sets it apart from the reproachful sense, which accuses someone of caring too much for themselves. The word is simply self plus -ish, matched by Danish selvisk and Swedish självisk. Compare it with more and most. Selfisher and selfishest exist but are proscribed, so keep them out of careful writing.
- 3Of a gene or similar unit, existing to copy and preserve itself in competition with its rivals, not for the individual or population containing it.
A selfish chromosome can rig egg formation so that it ends up in most of the offspring, whatever the cost to the mother.
Transposable elements behave in a selfish manner, replicating within the genome regardless of any benefit to the organism.
Note
Biology borrows the everyday reproach and strips out the motive, because nothing here wants anything. A gene, a virus or a genetic element is called selfish when its spread is best explained from its own point of view, by the copies it makes and the rivals it outcompetes, rather than by any benefit to its host. Richard Brodie extends it to the selfish meme and insists it implies no consciousness. It usually stands before its noun.
- 4Of a video game character: effective through its own actions and abilities rather than depending on support from other characters.
Speedrunners favor selfish champions that can carry a match without coordinated team support.
The new duelist plays as a selfish pick, thriving on solo plays rather than teamwork.
Note
Among players the word loses its sting and becomes a description, sometimes even a perk: a selfish character carries itself and needs little from teammates. It attaches to role labels such as a selfish DPS or a selfish pick, and it stands opposite characters built to support others. Sid Natividad, writing on Genshin Impact in 2021, calls Xiao a selfish DPS who deals damage independently.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "self" plus the suffix "-ish", comparable to Danish "selvisk" and Swedish "självisk", both meaning "selfish".