self-deprecating

adjective

self-dep·​re·​cat·​ing ˌself-ˈde-pri-ˌkā-tiŋ 

: tending or serving to disparage or undervalue oneself

self-deprecating humor

He is far too self-deprecating … to assume the persona of a celebrity.

—Eve MacSweeney

self-deprecatingly adverb

… his own informal cluster of American dissident scholars, which self-deprecatingly calls itself the "consolation club" …

—Franklin Foer

Examples of self-deprecating in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Prince of Wales, 42, cracked a self-deprecating joke about his thinning hair while meeting a well-wisher during his visit to the West Midlands on March 11. —Janine Henni, People.com, 12 Mar. 2025

Gaga was both host and musical guest on the latest episode of SNL, with the singer also delivering a self-deprecating opening monologue and a pair of Mayhem performances. —Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 9 Mar. 2025

Monologue Gaga’s monologue strikes a nice balance between self-deprecating jokes and former theater kid energy. —Rosa Escandon, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2025

The star then ended with a self-deprecating nod to her acting career. —Christian Allaire, Vogue, 9 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-deprecating

• accelerating
• accentuating
• accommodating
• accumulating
• adjudicating
• administrating
• affiliating
• agglutinating
• alienating
• alleviating
• amalgamating
• ameliorating