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self-image

American  
[self-im-ij] / ˈsɛlfˈɪm ɪdʒ /

noun

  • self-images
    plural
  1. the idea, conception, or mental image one has of oneself.


self-image British  

noun

  1. one's own idea of oneself or sense of one's worth

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of self-image

First recorded in 1950–55

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:

The California grizzly is so important to our self-image that 180 years ago, we put one on the flag that evolved into the state flag.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 13, 2026

The vintage movie footage—one of Mr. Magnason’s grandfathers was a camera buff, so images abound—gives a solid sense of a place, its people and its self-image.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 30, 2026

And it's all connected to Trump's self-image, Cassino said.

From Barron's Jun. 11, 2026

But dig deeper and the mask represents her struggles with mental health and self-image.

From BBC May 8, 2026

Faith in mobility, after all, has been consciously woven into the national self-image.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Over time, aspects of the myth began seeping into the psyches and self-images of Jews themselves.

From The Wall Street Journal May 28, 2026

One of Holly Bass’s suite of self-images, set in a cotton field to recall her father’s sharecropper past, is printed on gauzy material stretched across a mirror to give a sense of shifting levels.

From Washington Post Nov. 11, 2022

As Williams writes in Commute, “shame is an instrument of oppression”, and across comics, female artists are confronting their mottled self-images through the act of drawing their bodies, traumas and desires.

From The Guardian Aug. 29, 2019

The mismatch between our selves and our self-images takes charged shape in three masks by Richard Hawkins and Elijah Burgher.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 11, 2017

I supported appropriate patient self-images with as many concrete "hard to denies" as possible.

From Humanistic Nursing by Josephine G. Paterson

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