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self-understanding

British  

noun

  1. the ability to understand one's own actions

"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

Example Sentences

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Cameron Berg misunderstands the Catholic Church’s contribution to humanity’s self-understanding in his op-ed “Will the Pope Owe an Apology to AI?”

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 24, 2026

The point of opening the caskets of our forgotten history is to foster the self-understanding necessary to empower the work of creating a future that upholds the democratic creed that “all men are created equal.”

From Salon Oct. 13, 2024

Self-acceptance won’t be easy, but it will first require self-understanding.

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 20, 2024

The story of identity formation is deeply personal, based on the sedimentation of experience, self-understanding, and the ascriptions of others.

From Slate Jul. 5, 2023

Life was driving at brains—at its darling object: an organ by which it can attain not only self-consciousness but self-understanding.

From Man and Superman by Shaw, Bernard

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