self-effacing
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
- self-effacingly adverb
Explanation
Someone who's self-effacing is shy and likes to stay out of the spotlight, shunning attention and praise. To efface something is to erase it, so to be self-effacing is to try to remove yourself from various situations, especially ones that draw attention. If someone says you did a great job and you say, "It was nothing," that's self-effacing. It is usually considered a positive quality, since it's the opposite of being cocky, egotistical, and attention-hogging. The root of effacing is the Old French word esfacier, which means "to wipe out or destroy," literally "to remove the face."
Vocabulary lists containing self-effacing
Flowers for Algernon
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"Curtis Aikens and the American Dream" and "Go For It!"
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All My Sons
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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.
“Eastward, Westward” is the opposite of congratulatory: It is courtly and self-effacing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
In the pilot, she is insecure and self-effacing; when a car almost runs her over, she apologizes to the driver.
From Salon • Dec. 15, 2025
Is it possible that today we are seeing a decisive erosion in popular tolerance of Biya's self-effacing version of semi-authoritarian rule?
From BBC • Oct. 27, 2025
Vaill also takes exception to the characterization of Eliza as self-effacing.
From Slate • Oct. 21, 2025
Having worked in intelligence himself, he marveled at the thought of this “wispy, gentle, self-effacing woman knocking off, one by one, some of the nastiest pieces of business then existing.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions 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.
