self-discovery

[ self-di-skuhv-uh-ree ]

noun

1. the act or process of coming to recognize and understand one’s own assumptions, priorities, behavior, strengths and weaknesses, etc.:

   College is a time of self-discovery and formation for students.

   Decades of suffering and years of therapy culminated in this emotional moment of self-discovery and forgiveness.

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-discovery¹

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

What if an affair is a process of positive self-discovery rather than selfish carnal impulses?

From The Daily Beast

This achievement was a journey full of trials, mistakes, loss, and self-discovery.

From The Daily Beast

She will unearth more than their remains in a quest that becomes a journey of baleful discovery and painful self-discovery.

From The Daily Beast

Valderrama's current Twitter bio reads "Self discovery is my hobby…Changing the world my daily task."

From The Daily Beast

And since then, teenage years have served as a time for rebellion, self-discovery, and cultural decision-making.

From The Daily Beast

Seldom it realises at the outset that it is adventuring in the dark, therein to grope as best it may to self-discovery.

From Project Gutenberg

He saw his vanity of that desk in a lurid glow of self-discovery.

From Project Gutenberg

He was now on that unwholesome, absorbing, thrilling, dangerous path of self-discovery.

From Project Gutenberg

Self-discovery is helpful only when it leads to better ways of self-expression.

From Project Gutenberg

I had reached such an elevation on my mountain of Self-discovery, as Esther would have put it, that I commanded vision at last.

From Project Gutenberg