self-directed

British

adjective

(of study, learning, etc) regulated or conducted by oneself

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

The album releases Friday, after months of building up fans’ excitement around singles and self-directed music videos.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 25, 2026

Tech firms have invested heavily in so-called AI agents - self-directed bots that can plan and complete complex tasks on behalf of humans.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2026

Employees just starting in a plan who adopted a managed account were projected to retire with about 8% more savings relative to pay than target-date fund users and nearly 16% more than self-directed investors.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 20, 2026

The majority of those who failed to take their required distributions—56.8%—were self-directed investors with less than $5,000 in their accounts.

From Barron's • Dec. 24, 2025

Learning in our family was entirely self-directed: you could learn anything you could teach yourself, after your work was done.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023