self-validating
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of self-validating
First recorded in 1940–45
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.
In 2012, Lauren Rivera, a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, coined the term "looking glass merit" to describe the unconscious tendency that humans have to define merit in a way that is self-validating.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2025
But they didn’t exist within an insular, self-validating community whose values and assumptions were often at odds with those of the rest of society.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 31, 2021
They encourage confirmatory, self-validating thought, rather than the exploratory thought that helps our politics stay aligned with reality.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 26, 2017
And perhaps most relevant is the way El Akkad re-creates the rhetoric of factional righteousness, the self-validating claims of the aggrieved that keep every war fueled.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2017
But what peeved me was the gratuitous takedown of live-alones, in a manner that seemed rather self-validating.
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2015
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.
