self-improvement

American  

[self-im-proov-muhnt, self-] / ˈsɛlf ɪmˈpruv mənt, ˌsɛlf- /

noun

1. improvement of one's mind, character, etc., through one's own efforts.

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self-improvement British  

noun

1. the improvement of one's status, position, education, etc, by one's own efforts

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Other Word Forms

• self-improver
  noun
• self-improvable
  adjective
• self-improving
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of self-improvement

First recorded in 1735–45

Explanation

The process of making yourself a better or more knowledgable person can be called self-improvement. Doing sit-ups every night and learning to speak Mandarin might be part of your new self-improvement routine. Anything you do in an attempt to improve yourself is self-improvement. Volunteering at a homeless shelter, going to college, learning to meditate — all of these things can lead to self-improvement. Often, self-improvement and self-help are used interchangeably. The improvement part of this word originally meant "making money with something," but by the 1640s it came to mean "the act of making better."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

self-improvement

“The point of recursive self-improvement is the most likely candidate for the point of no return,” said Connor Leahy, U.S. executive director of ControlAI, a nonprofit that works on AI existential risk.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

She said AI is making impressive strides but thinks claims by engineers that they’ve achieved recursive self-improvement don’t stand up to scrutiny.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Within the industry, experts and researchers believe the first AI company to master recursive self-improvement will kick off exponential development, “winning” the race by making it impossible for competitors to catch up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

It’s “starting to happen across the industry,” including at Anthropic, Amodei wrote of recursive self-improvement.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

She spent the day as she often did, on self-improvement.

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart