prideful

American  

[prahyd-fuhl] / ˈpraɪd fəl /

adjective

1. thinking too highly of oneself; conceited, arrogant, or overconfident.

   I was too bitter and prideful and didn't think I needed the Addiction Recovery meetings, so I didn’t go.

2. full of a legitimate sense of self-worth or satisfaction because of one’s own or another’s accomplishment.

   It is a prideful moment for us as we congratulate our friend, one of ten winners of the annual Worldwide Robotics contest.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unprideful
  adjective
• unpridefully
  adverb
• pridefulness
  noun
• pridefully
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of prideful

pride ( def. ) + -ful ( def. )

Explanation

Someone who's prideful is arrogant and disdainful. Prideful people don't usually have many friends, since they think they're superior to everyone else. Although the adjective prideful is occasionally used simply to mean "proud," or pleased and happy because of some achievement or quality, it usually means something closer to "haughty." If you know someone who's beyond proud, believing they're smarter, more beautiful, or just generally better than most other people, you can describe that person as prideful.

Example Sentences

Prideful statements like these pump out of Smith like an oil spill in a sea of good intentions.

From Washington Post • Nov. 5, 2021

Prideful but endearingly innocent, the underappreciated pioneer is presented as a numbers-obsessed prodigy decades before Bill James coined the term “sabermetrics.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 10, 2021

Prideful and demonstrative, but neither the heel nor the clown.

From Slate • Jan. 15, 2016

Prideful fans waved flags, or tied them around their necks as capes, and scrambled through the stadium bellowing singing and chanting after a day of tailgating.

From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2011

Prideful Cassius was due for his fall, and they were there to trip him if they could.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• dignified
• proud
• self-respecting
• upstanding