self-insert
self-insert noun: a character in a story who represents the author's own person.
Noun
self-insert (plural self-inserts)
- A character in a story who represents the author's own person.
- [Joss Whedon] loves sexualizing her, like […] making her fall for his self-insert Bruce Banner.2018 July 13, Kate Gardner, “HBO Greenlights a New Joss Whedon Show, Critics Immediately Groan”, in The Mary Sue
- A character in a story who the reader/viewer is meant to identify with.
- The female character has to be likable. She's a self-insert for the female viewers so she probably won't be unique, but watching her interact with other characters can't be frustrating.2015 October 7, Lynzee Loveridge, “The Fall 2015 Anime Preview Guide: Dance with Devils”, in Anime News Network
- An original character created by a fan to represent how they imagine themselves in a particular fictional universe.
Verb
self-insert (third-person singular simple present self-inserts, present participle self-inserting, simple past and past participle self-inserted)
- To insert oneself.
- For centuries, the commonest forms of implant had either been grown in situ or were designed to self-insert painlessly via existing orifices […]2000, Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space
- To insert something into one's own body.
- In Oregon, a group called Ceek Women's Health has begun clinical trials for a series of new devices—including […] a speculum that patients can self-insert.2018 October 5, Arielle Pardes, “The Speculum Finally Gets a Modern Redesign”, in Wired
- To insert one's own person into a story as a character.
- The character looks like Goldman and is voiced by him, so critics said he was self-inserting himself into a romantic situation with an underage character.2017 June 1, Beth Elderkin, “This Creepy Powerpuff Girls Theory Isn't True, Thank God”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2018
Forms of self-insert
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | self-inserts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | self-inserts |
| present participle | self-inserting |
| past participle | self-inserted |
| past | self-inserted |
Origin of self-insert
From self- + insert.
Questions about self-insert
- What does self-insert mean?
- Self-insert means a character in a story who represents the author's own person.
- What part of speech is self-insert?
- Self-insert can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of self-insert?
- The plural of self-insert is self-inserts.
Words near self-insert in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: self-insert (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “self-insert.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/self-insert. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.