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selves

noun
SELVZ/sɛlvz/

2 meanings of selves

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  1. 1
    noun
    Plural of self.

    Therapy helped them make peace with their younger selves.

    The novel follows two characters torn between their public and private selves.

    Note

    Here the plural splits by meaning. When self names a person, a personality, or a mind turned back on itself, the plural is selves: our younger selves, their public and private selves. The gardener's self, a seedling raised by self-pollination, takes the regular plural selfs instead. So selves belongs to people, following the -f to -ves pattern of leaf and leaves, shelf and shelves.

  2. 2
    nounobsolete
    Plural of selfe.
    Note

    An old spelling of the singular meets the modern plural here. Selfe, now obsolete, was simply self written another way, so its plural looks exactly like today's. A reader who meets selves in an older text needs no translation and can read it as the familiar word. Only the noun selfe takes this plural, and the split between selves and selfs belongs to the modern plural.

selves is a form of self

self, noun: A person's own being, the inner 'I' that thinks, feels, and is aware of itself. Full entry

Forms
selfselves pluralselfs plural
Spelling
self → selves: change f to v, add -es

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