English Explanatory Dictionary

self

English dictionary entry

Meanings

pron
  1. Himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).
  2. Myself, oneself.
noun
  1. One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.
  2. The subject of one's own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts.
  3. An individual person as the object of the person's own reflective consciousness (plural selves).
  4. Self-interest or personal advantage.
  5. A seedling produced by self-pollination (plural selfs).
  6. A flower having its colour uniform as opposed to variegated.
  7. Any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).
verb
  1. To fertilize by the same individual; to self-fertilize or self-pollinate.
  2. To fertilize by the same strain; to inbreed.
adj
  1. Having its own or a single nature or character throughout, as in colour, composition, etc., without addition or change; of the same kind; unmixed.
  2. Same, identical.
  3. Belonging to oneself; own.
  4. Of or relating to any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule, cell, or tissue (for example, infective, allogenic, or xenogenic).
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A freed slave surname originating as an occupation.
  3. An unincorporated community in Boone County, Arkansas, United States.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɛlf/ /ˈsɛf/ /ˈsɛl/ en-us-self.ogg

Word forms

self selves selfe silf silfe selfs selfing selfed

Etymology

From Middle English salve, self, silf, from Old English self, seolf, sylf, from Proto-Germanic *selbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ- (“one's own”). Cognates Cognates with Saterland Frisian sälven, säärm, sääuwen (“oneself”), West Frisian sels (“oneself”), Bavarian söbe (“identical, same”), söber (“self”), Dutch zelf (“myself, oneself”), German selber (“self”), selbst (“by oneself”), Luxembourgish selwer (“self”), Yiddish זעלב (zelb, “same”), Danish selv (“self”), Elfdalian siuov (“self”), Faroese sjálvur (“self”), Icelandic sjálfur (“self”), Norwegian Bokmål selv, Norwegian Nynorsk sjølv, Swedish själv (“self”), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌱𐌰 (silba, “self”).

Synonyms

cyberself herself himself itself myself non-self oneself one's self ourselves technoself themselves thyself yourself yourselves

Antonyms

nonself outcross

Related words

self- person I ego

Derived words

antiself catself dreamself ego-self no-self note to self not-self ownself polyself salicide self-abuse self-care self-centered self-contained selfdom selfer self goal selfheal selfhood self-hosted selficide selfie selfish selfism selfist selfless selflike selfline selfly selfname selfness selfsame selfsameness selfship selfsome selfward selfwards selfy selvage selving shadow of one's former self subself superself underself unself selfbow Selfian
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary