navel-gazing

noun

navel-gaz·​ing ˈnā-vəl-ˈgā-ziŋ How to pronounce navel-gazing (audio)
: useless or excessive self-contemplation

Examples of navel-gazing in a Sentence

a singer-songwriter whose compositions are too often exercises in self-important navel-gazing
Recent Examples on the Web That deserves far more digital ink to be spilled than the usual navel-gazing about how iPhones are boring. Steven Aquino, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024 As for the airport tray aesthetic, while people might be getting het up at the idea of Gen Z holding up the line for some navel-gazing, the US Transport Security Administration is sanguine about the risk. Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 8 Sep. 2024 Plenty of people saw these films, and their teeth were set on edge by the cultural homogeneity, the navel-gazing conversations, the unremarkable visual palate, or the nonchalant performances contained therein. Vikram Murthi, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2024 This persistent reliance on navel-gazing is annoying, and with everything being so on the surface, there’s no urgency whatsoever to the story. Jordan Hoffman, EW.com, 23 July 2024 The calamitous results of this year’s European Parliamentary elections for Macron and Scholz could result in a prolonged period of French and German navel-gazing—and hence a lack of progress on many EU priorities. Matthias Matthijs, Foreign Affairs, 11 June 2024 Critics sometimes derisively describe it as navel-gazing. Andrea Kane, CNN, 9 June 2024 In that sense, turning the camera back on one’s self shouldn’t qualify as navel-gazing. Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2024 But the voiceovers also feel like lumps of prose in a film too busy navel-gazing to build narrative shape or momentum. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'navel-gazing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of navel-gazing was in 1922

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near navel-gazing

Cite this Entry

“Navel-gazing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/navel-gazing. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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