self-effacing
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Someone who's self-effacing is shy and likes to stay out of the spotlight, shunning attention and praise. To efface something is to erase it, so to be self-effacing is to try to remove yourself from various situations, especially ones that draw attention. If someone says you did a great job and you say, "It was nothing," that's self-effacing. It is usually considered a positive quality, since it's the opposite of being cocky, egotistical, and attention-hogging. The root of effacing is the Old French word esfacier, which means "to wipe out or destroy," literally "to remove the face."
Vocabulary lists containing self-effacing
Flowers for Algernon
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"Curtis Aikens and the American Dream" and "Go For It!"
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All My Sons
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Parton’s self-effacing jokes made her immense talent less threatening in an entertainment industry that often reserved the title of “genius songwriter” for men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
He liked comic books, Pop art, collage, landscape, the miniature worlds of Joseph Cornell boxes: virtually anything modest and surprising, even self-effacing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Whatever his intention with this self-effacing and possibly insulting answer, Mr. Newsom seemed unschooled in the dialogue of politics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
"He's very self-effacing about it - I think that he just knew he was not cut out for it," he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2026
I thought he might shift from the self-effacing Abnegation leader to the nightmare I knew at home, that he might lash out and reveal himself for who he is.
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
