self-definition

American  

[self-def-uh-nish-uhn] / ˈsɛlfˌdɛf əˈnɪʃ ən /

noun

self-definitions plural

1. the act or process of defining or identifying one's own character, purpose, role, etc.

2. the description used by someone to define or identify their own character, purpose, role, etc.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-definitional
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• self-definitions
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

self-definition self-definitions

Not to do so is to outsource the right’s self-definition to the most vile and discrediting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025

In those initial steps of self-definition, deconstructing the political and religious maps I’d grown up with, I had feared my parents’ disappointment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2024

This is not about identity politics but ennui: Even minuscule choices, like what socks to wear, are part of a larger cultural self-definition and viral conversation.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2024

Those who remain “evangelical” by self-definition and do not want their movement to mean what I just called it have the responsibility to wrestle it back in a different direction.

From Salon ● Jan. 9, 2024

Every nationality in the state to have the right of self-definition.

From Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy by Spargo, John

A shorts program about re-evaluating masculinity, “Boys Beyond Boundaries,” which was new last year, has returned with films like Christina Willings’s Canadian documentary “Beauty,” featuring five children whose self-definitions don’t match their birth certificates.

From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2019

And he made many of those self-definitions, sometimes it seemed for the sake of defiance or attention itself, from ages 22 to 25.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2016

It no longer existed for good reasons, including the fortunate demise of the narrow self-definitions and exclusions on which it ran.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 3, 2015