Word.ws English Dictionary

self-actualization

self-actualization noun: psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled.

Noun

self-actualization (usually uncountable, plural self-actualizations)

  1. (usually) Psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled.
    • This is not an exercise in self-actualization at other people's expense. That's what you've been doing up until now. This is about acknowledging your faults to the people you've hurt without hurting them more.2007 November, Gil Schwartz, “Escape from the job monster”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 122
    • The pursuit of individual autonomy or “self-actualisation”, for example, has become mired in an identity politics that subsumes the individual into rigidly defined groupings based on ethnicity, gender or sexuality.2022 March 8, Andrew Anthony, “Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Synonyms of self-actualization

Forms of self-actualization

pluralself-actualizations
alternative formself-actualisation

Origin of self-actualization

From self- + actualization. Probably applied in this sense by Abraham Maslow.

Words formed from self-actualization

Questions about self-actualization

What does self-actualization mean?
Self-actualization means psychological development that can be achieved when all basic and mental needs are fulfilled.
What part of speech is self-actualization?
Self-actualization is a noun.
What is the plural of self-actualization?
The plural of self-actualization is self-actualizations.

Words near self-actualization in the dictionary

  1. self-actualisation
  2. self-actualise
  3. self-actualised
  4. self-actualises
  5. self-actualising
  6. self-actualization
  7. self-actualizations
  8. self-actualize
  9. self-actualized
  10. self-actualizes
  11. self-actualizing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-actualization (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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