self-definition
Americannoun
-
self-definitions
plural
-
the act or process of defining or identifying one's own character, purpose, role, etc.
-
the description used by someone to define or identify their own character, purpose, role, etc.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
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
Here, I refuse to let grief become self-definition: I live unfettered from the speed of emergency.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
It has to encourage self-definition in and through skills best suited to practical experiences of self-constitution in a world that has escaped the cycle of repetition, and pursues goals unrelated to previous experiences.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
