Word.ws English Dictionary

introject

/ɪntɹə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɛkt/

introject verb: to unconsciously incorporate into one's psyche.

Verb

introject (third-person singular simple present introjects, present participle introjecting, simple past and past participle introjected)

  1. To unconsciously incorporate into one's psyche.
    • Sometimes the attempt was made to reduce the inner to the outer world (Condillac, Mach, Avenarius, materialism); sometimes the outer to the inner world (Descartes, Berkeley, Fichte); sometimes the sphere of the absolute to the others (e.g., by trying to infer causally the essence and existence of...2014, Volker Meja, Nico Stehr, Knowledge and Politics
  2. (broadly, multiplicity slang) To form a headmate from details from another source.

Noun

introject (plural introjects)

  1. An element of another person that is unconsciously incorporated into one's psyche.
    • When introjects are weak (or even absent), an anaclitic personality configuration results, characterized by dependency, insecurity, and feelings of helplessness and emptiness.2003, Theodore Millon, Melvin J. Lerner, Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology, page 123
    • Repetitious comments are other examples of introjects that we take on as if they were truths. These include: You're lazy; you're selfish; you'll never amount to anything; […]2015, Janet S. Steinwedel, The Golden Key to Executive Coaching
  2. (broadly, multiplicity slang) A headmate who is in some way from another source.

Forms of introject

Verb
third-person singular presentintrojects
present participleintrojecting
past participleintrojected
pastintrojected
Noun
pluralintrojects

Origin of introject

Back-formation from introjection.

Questions about introject

What does introject mean?
Introject means to unconsciously incorporate into one's psyche.
What part of speech is introject?
Introject can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce introject?
Introject is pronounced /ɪntɹə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɛkt/.
What is the past tense of introject?
The past tense of introject is introjected.

Words near introject in the dictionary

  1. introitus
  2. introitus vaginae
  3. introitus vaginarum
  4. introitus vaginæ
  5. introituses
  6. introject
  7. introjected
  8. introjecting
  9. introjection
  10. introjections
  11. introjects

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: introject (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “introject.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/introject. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.