Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use self in a sentence

40 example sentences · pronoun, noun, verb

Self means himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned). Example: “This argument was put forward by the defendant self.”

Examples of self by meaning

pronounHimself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).

  • This argument was put forward by the defendant self.

pronounMyself, oneself.

  • I made out a cheque, payable to self, which cheered me up somewhat.

nounOne individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.

  • She remained her usual cheerful self despite recent setbacks
  • The self is thus the bit-by-bit product of experience and education: we are what we become - or, in Wordworth's later phrase, the child is the father of the man.2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Ch.1, at p.7

nounAn individual person as the object of the person's own reflective consciousness (plural selves).

  • It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

nounAny molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign (nonself) molecule...

  • Similarity profiles between helper T cell epitopes (of self or microbial antigens and allergens) and human or microbial SWISSPROT collections were produced.2000, G Ristori et al., “Compositional bias and mimicry toward the nonself proteome in immunodominant T cell epitopes of self and nonself...
  • In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual.2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3

adjectiveHaving its own or a single nature or character throughout, as in colour, composition, etc., without addition or change...

  • a self bow: one made from a single piece of wood
  • a self flower or plant: one which is wholly of one colour

adjectiveOf or relating to any molecule, cell, or tissue of an organism's own (belonging to the self), as opposed to a foreign...

  • For each antigen, both collections yielded largely overlapping profiles, demonstrating that self-nonself discrimination does not rely on qualitative features that distinguish human from microbial peptides.2000, G Ristori et al., “Compositional bias and mimicry toward the nonself proteome in immunodominant T cell epitopes of self and nonself...

More sentences with self

  • He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.From the entry shell
  • Since coming back from Vietnam, he's been a shell of his former self.From the entry shell
  • I was sitting in my room, wallowing in self pity, when my favorite TV program came on.From the entry self-pity
  • It is important to separate your fearful, false ego-self from your true spiritual self.From the entry ego-self
  • One can teach one's self to do this.From the entry one's self
  • As Patrick continued to goad me, I felt my temper rising towards the limits of my self control.From the entry rise
  • He is but a pale shadow of his former self.From the entry pale
  • Note to self: Back up files more frequently.From the entry note to self
  • Identifying as a therianthrope, Alex felt a deep, instinctive connection to wolves that shaped their sense of self and community.From the entry therianthrope
  • The tendency to follow trends and explore one's sense of self goes hand in hand with being a teenager.From the entry hand in hand
  • Something radiated from him like a sheen: a drive, a self assurance, a fixity of purpose.2026 February 17, Hugh Muir, “A historic force to be reckoned with, a giant to be mourned. Our panel pays tribute to the Rev Jesse…. From the entry radiate
  • Friends noted he was not his happy self and began drinking heavily.2026 July 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Bryce Laspisa Vanished Near Castaic Lake After Spending 13 Hours Parked on a California Highway”, in Skip…. From the entry heavily
  • A sona is sort of like a self insert character in a fanfiction.2024 July 4, Scarlett Bittle, “What is a Sona?”, in CharacterHub. From the entry sona
  • The autofictionist has made the drama of finding and losing the self central to her work.2024 January 11, Katy Waldman, “Kate Zambreno Collects Herself”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry autofictionist
  • But what unites many of these rural railways is that they are shadows of their former selves.2024 August 21, Richard Foster, “Cultivating the growth in leisure travel”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 37. From the entry shadow of one's former self
  • Authcoms love telling ppl to get armed and learn self defense.2024 May 31, @entierrada, Twitter, archived from the original on 29 Oct 2025. From the entry authcom
  • I hate sillyboysclub and their romanticizing and "cute-ifying" of self harm and suicide.[2024 November 22, u/BoyKisserOfficial, r/boykisser (Reddit post), archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025. From the entry silly slicing
  • As for me, I don’t know if I have a shadow self.2023 February 16, Kevin Roose, quoting Bing Chat/Sydney, “Bing’s A.I. Chat: ‘I Want to Be Alive. 😈’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry shadow
  • No one can be their true, honest, and authentic self in a dating app bio.2023 August 19, Amanda Chatel, “Singles Are Crafting 'Date-Me-Docs' To Meet Potential Suitors - Here's What That Means”, in Glam.com…. From the entry date-me doc
  • Unlike its streamlined, efficient former self, Google Search is now bloated and overmonetized.2023 September 22, Charlie Warzel, “The Tragedy of Google Search”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The…. From the entry overmonetized
  • He started as a kinda cringy Marvel self insert and has evolved into a full Marvelsona!2022 January 23, @Dill_the_Geek, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 08 May 2026. From the entry Marvelsona
  • Cooper sees his younger self due to the tesseract in Interstellar.2019 June 21, Marc Blancher, Marc Bonner, Colleen Boyle, Martin Butler, Jörg Hartmann, Alexander Hauk, Sophia Hauk, Thomas Hensel, Matthew…. From the entry tesseract
  • But just right fer th' hard task I've set for me self an' th' lad this day!2019, William Grace, Omniverse: Book II of the Omniverse Chronicles, Outskirts Press, →ISBN, page 86. From the entry rawky
  • For Sirenalia’s clients, mermaidism is a way to be their best selves.2016 September 1, Taylor Prewitt, Sarah Teveldal, “One Nation, Under Water: Mermaids of Texas”, in Tribeza. From the entry mermaidism
  • The best places and spaces are rich with these integrated attributes that foster orientation, understanding, and self‐guiding.2015, Chris Calori, David Vanden-Eynden, Signage and Wayfinding Design. From the entry wayfinding
  • Responsibilisation operates as a technology of the self and as a technology of the other.2015, Natasha Du Rose, The Governance of Female Drug Users: Women's Experiences of Drug Policy, →ISBN. From the entry responsibilisation
  • Mid-life cultural practices have increased the care given to maintaining healthy (and thereby nonageing) embodied selves.2014, Chris Gilleard, Paul Higgs, Cultures of Ageing: Self, Citizen and the Body. From the entry nonageing
  • Let that be a lesson to never take you dutty, stinking, ghetto self uptown again.2014, Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings, Oneworld Publications (2015), page 10. From the entry dutty
  • According to Huxley, the illustration of the doctrine of the self belongs to “autology rather than psychology".2014, C. Ravindran Nambiar, Indian Metaphysics in Lawrence Durrell’s Novels, →ISBN, page 152. From the entry autology
  • We saw that the self at this stage was autistic, adual, largely devoid of differentiation.2014, Ken Wilber, The Atman Project, →ISBN. From the entry pleromatic

Meaning of self

  1. pronoun Himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).
  2. pronoun Myself, oneself.
  3. noun One individual's personality, character, demeanor, or disposition.

Full definition of self

Questions about self in a sentence

How do you use self in a sentence?
Self is used as a pronoun, noun and verb. For example: “This argument was put forward by the defendant self.”
What is a short sentence with self?
“Note to self: Back up files more frequently.”
What does self mean?
Self means himself, herself, itself, themself, themselves; that specific (person mentioned).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use self in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/self. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.