as in egotistical
overly concerned with one's own desires, needs, or interests
a selfish desire to succeed at the expense of others
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of selfish
Her mom died two years before, then her selfish husband left her and their three kids.
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Nora Dahlia, People.com, 2 Dec. 2024
There is nothing selfish about wanting to keep yourself safe and protected before all else.
—Meghan Rose, Glamour, 1 Dec. 2024
These men’s complacency, The Seed of the Sacred Fig argues, isn’t just a selfish act of self-preservation.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024
Many Democrats have abandoned hope in favor of cynicism: deciding that most of the voting public are selfish, bigoted enemies of democracy.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 23 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for selfish 
Nora Dahlia, People.com, 2 Dec. 2024
There is nothing selfish about wanting to keep yourself safe and protected before all else.
—Meghan Rose, Glamour, 1 Dec. 2024
These men’s complacency, The Seed of the Sacred Fig argues, isn’t just a selfish act of self-preservation.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024
Many Democrats have abandoned hope in favor of cynicism: deciding that most of the voting public are selfish, bigoted enemies of democracy.
—Jamil Zaki, TIME, 23 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for selfish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for selfish
Adjective
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The film, which centers on a group of egotistical actors making a Vietnam War movie, grossed nearly $200 million worldwide and picked up an Oscar nomination for supporting actor thanks to Robert Downey Jr.Zack Sharf, Variety, 26 Nov. 2024
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And with Elon Musk playing a key role in this new administration, who knows in which direction his bombastic, egotistical whims may take AI development?Matt Robison, Newsweek, 20 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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So begins possibly the most egocentric quest to humble oneself the stage has yet seen.Sara Holdren, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2024
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Some of the men have been described as egocentric, aggressive, and routinely unfaithful.Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 3 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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She was born into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, the product of a narcissistic mother, who was a scion of the Guinness-brewing fortune, and an Etonian father, who was killed in wartime Burma, when Blackwood was thirteen.Negar Azimi, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2024
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In contrast, vulnerable narcissistic leaders are insecure, hypersensitive to feedback, and prone to emotional volatility (e.g., Richard Nixon, Christina Kirchner, Vladimir Putin, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs).Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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In Japan, however, where modesty and formality are valued in leadership, such a style might seem self-centered or inappropriate.Sarat Chakravarthi, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024
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So, how do good leaders operate with confidence without coming across as arrogant or self-centered?Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Fiona Shaw is so perfectly contemptible throughout those scenes on the sailboat, rendering Angelica so completely self-absorbed and so cruel, that her likely death feels like an immediate relief.Caroline Framke, Vulture, 4 Dec. 2024
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Zoey Johnson Zoey, the fashion-forward and occasionally self-absorbed eldest Johnson child.Okla Jones, Essence, 24 Sep. 2024
Adjective
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Needless to say, this particular motive is not mentioned in Biden’s solipsistic and self-pitying statement.Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024
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The old tourist is essentially the boorish figure from the headlines—solipsistic, oriented toward the self, someone who superimposes their fantasies onto a place and then is outraged when their expectations aren’t met.Chelsea Leu, The Atlantic, 30 June 2024
Adjective
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A little self-involved, but the check clears either way.Bethy Squires, Vulture, 16 Aug. 2024
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Don’t be too proud to accept help or too self-involved to provide it in return.Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 30 July 2024
Adjective
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The potential for self-serving bias and belief bias are evident.Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
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For officials in China and Russia, de facto adversaries of the United States, the Iraq War is an easy precedent to put forward to shoot down Washington’s talking points, no matter how self-serving and cynical that may be.Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 17 Mar. 2023
Thesaurus Entries Near selfish
Cite this Entry
“Selfish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/selfish. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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