Word.ws English Dictionary

self-contained

UK/ˈsɛlf.kənˌteɪnd/

self-contained adjective: not requiring external or additional support; complete in itself. Also the simple past and past participle of self-contain.

Adjective

self-contained (comparative more self-contained, superlative most self-contained)

  1. Not requiring external or additional support; complete in itself.
    • a self-contained apartment
    • The software is self-contained, and doesn't interface with anything except the user.
  2. (idiomatic) Of a person, wrapped up in oneself; reserved.

Also used as

self-contained is also the simple past and past participle of self-contain.

self-contained meaning in Vietnamese

self-contained in Vietnamese

not requiring external or additional support
khép kín

Examples of self-contained in a sentence

  • Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
  • Each of these can be further sub-divided into self-contained divisions; the technical research department, for example, includes Engineering and Chemical Divisions.1961 February, R. K. Evans, “The role of research on British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 92:
  • Whereas the history of the London Underground is generally very fiddly, the history of the Waterloo & City is blessedly self-contained and simple.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 109:
  • Merseyrail is, in effect, a self-contained network with eight termini.2020 December 16, Chris Howe, “Merseyrail sets its sights on network expansion”, in Rail, page 34:

Forms of self-contained

comparativemore self-contained
superlativemost self-contained

Origin of self-contained

From self- + contained.

Questions about self-contained

What does self-contained mean?
Self-contained means not requiring external or additional support; complete in itself.
What is self-contained in Vietnamese?
Self-contained in Vietnamese is khép kín. See Self-contained meaning in Vietnamese.
How do you use self-contained in a sentence?
Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
What part of speech is self-contained?
Self-contained is an adjective.
How do you pronounce self-contained?
Self-contained is pronounced /ˈsɛlf.kənˌteɪnd/ (UK).

Words near self-contained in the dictionary

  1. self-consistency
  2. self-consistent
  3. self-consolation
  4. self-consolations
  5. self-contain
  6. self-contained
  7. self-containing
  8. self-contains
  9. self-contempt
  10. self-contradict
  11. self-contradicted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-contained (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-self-contained.wav.

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