Word.ws English Dictionary

self-fulfilling

self-fulfilling adjective: describing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted.

Adjective

self-fulfilling (not comparable)

  1. Describing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted.
    • The prediction of poor turnout for the event was self-fulfilling: once people heard the turnout would be bad, they didn't come.
    • Whether or not we believe in astrology is irrelevant; the question is, did the Magdalenians? If so, then in a self-fulfilling prophecy they may have been organizing their lives according to a religious belief system, and not simply an economic or ecological one.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130

Origin of self-fulfilling

From self- + fulfilling.

Words formed from self-fulfilling

Phrases with self-fulfilling

Questions about self-fulfilling

What does self-fulfilling mean?
Self-fulfilling means describing a prediction that causes itself to occur as predicted.
What part of speech is self-fulfilling?
Self-fulfilling is an adjective.

Words near self-fulfilling in the dictionary

  1. self-focusing
  2. self-focussed
  3. self-focusses
  4. self-focussing
  5. self-formed
  6. self-fulfilling
  7. self-fulfilling prophecies
  8. self-fulfilling prophecy
  9. self-fulfillment
  10. self-fulfillments
  11. self-fund

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-fulfilling (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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