self-critique

noun

self-cri·​tique ˌself-krə-ˈtēk 

-kri-

plural self-critiques

: the act or an instance of critically examining oneself

… self-critique entails constant attention to the critic's own work, as well as to the work of others concerned with the same problems.

—Jackie Byars

Examples of self-critique in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

If your image of Old World Jewry comes from Grade’s contemporary Isaac Bashevis Singer, with his kabbalists, dybbuks, and elaborate rabbinic courts, swap in Lithuanian Talmudists conducting self-critique and doing pilpul—close textual analysis—in spartan houses of study. —Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2025

While the majority of the night’s material was expected hagiography, the pointed self-critique was a sober reminder that a lot of SNL does not hold up. —Esther Zuckerman, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2025

Revision and self-critique can be seen as a native form, a beat. —Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2024

At least there’s some sly meta self-critique in the arc of its plot: As the characters discover, sometimes going back to the origins of a thing can be a huge mistake. 5. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 26 Apr. 2024

The student spent more than two hours preparing for the read-in by videotaping herself reciting the poem for self-critiques and feedback from friends. —Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 2 Mar. 2024

The engine of the story, which is teeming with jokes and inside jokes, critiques and self-critiques, as well as esoteric allusions, is Keesha’s desire to transcend the confines of the Blackground by securing her own autonomous plotline. —Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic, 9 Feb. 2024

That tendency toward self-critique may ultimately have been the tragic flaw of Menand’s midcentury creatives. —Beverly Gage, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1872, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-critique

• angelique
• dominique
• fenugreek
• politique
• veronique
• antique
• batik
• bespeak
• boutique
• cacique
• comique
• critique