self-referential
Americanadjective
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.
The resulting album, titled Music, Fashion, Film, is smart, self-referential, funny, antagonistic and crammed full of moments to stimulate your inner earworm.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Technically, this is not “Wuthering Heights,” but “Wuthering Heights” in the self-referential quotation marks on the poster, an acknowledgment that Fennell has plunged her fingers into the plot and manipulated it to her whims.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
In a modern artist, such paint handling would be self-referential.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 2026
“Few contemporary writers have shown themselves to be quite as self-referential as Roth,” Mr. Zipperstein writes, “and few self-referential writers have managed, for so very long, to be quite so cagey.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
They were all the things he tried not to be, showy and self-referential.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
