Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use selfishness in a sentence

17 example sentences · noun

Selfishness means the quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others. Example: “His actions impress a message of selfishness to us all.”

Examples of selfishness by meaning

nounThe quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others.

  • This common faith or set of aspirations, he added, could also help Americans transcend their selfishnesses and follies and promote a world civil religion given to justice and hope.1988 March 5, Martin E. Marty, “FRONT-PAGE RELIGION”, in The New York Times
  • And he knows that Patrick can afford to complain about his mother’s minor selfishness but he cannot afford to engage with the idea of his own father at all.2014 February 17, Dan Callahan, “Looking Recap: Versatility”, in Vulture

More sentences with selfishness

  • His actions impress a message of selfishness to us all.From the entry impress
  • Selfishness has different variations, but in the end it is all the same.2020 May 10, “Cultivation Experience of a Young Practitioner Born in the 90s”, in Minghui. From the entry variation
  • "Wallace's suggestion for overcoming the epistemological and solipsistic effects of innate selfishness is twofold."2014, Robert K. Bolger, Scott Korb, Gesturing Toward Reality: David Foster Wallace and Philosophy. From the entry twofold
  • Most of us live in a world somewhere between the extremes of absolute selfishness and absolute self-abnegation.2014, Roger Lee Ray, Progressive Faith and Practice: Thou Shalt Not Stand Idly By, unnumbered page. From the entry I got mine
  • EST was widely criticized for sanctifying selfishness and for abrasive and traumatic training sessions.1995, Jonathan Z. Smith, editor, HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion, New York: HarperSanFrancisco, →ISBN, pages 343, 365, 795. From the entry Scientology
  • We've bought the lie that achievement equals selfishness, and it has cost us our excellence.1984, Analog science fiction/science fact - Volume 104, page 92. From the entry megamind
  • Selfishness recedes, good will and gentleness for a blessed moment prevail.1982 December 25, “Opinion: Children at the Window”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Sep 2016. From the entry better angels
  • She had mocked passion with barter, and starved love with selfishness.1913 August, Constance Skinner, “Give Hand and Follow”, in Ainslee’s Magazine, volume 32, number 1, page 74. From the entry unwive
  • We will be celebrating Ugadi in its true spirit only when we give up our narrow-mindedness and selfishness.2022 November 12, Sri Sathya Sai Media Centre, Sanathana Sarathi English Volume 07 (2012 - 2021): The Eternal Charioteer, Sri Sathya Sai…. From the entry Ugadi
  • The domestic debacle unleashed by the pandemic, and global perceptions of American selfishness and incompetence, could change everything.2020 April 12, Simon Tisdall, “US's global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump's coronavirus response”, in The Guardian. From the entry on course
  • It is not possible to practise noninjury unless selfishness is given up in respect of all external matters.1981, Vyāsa Patañjali, Yoga philosophy of Patañjali. From the entry noninjury
  • From the first the Russian had exhibited every trait of his true character—selfishness, boorishness, arrogance, cowardice, and lust.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 21, in The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 177. From the entry boorishness
  • Selfishness is indeed the supplanter of God in the soul.1906, James H. McConkey, “Jacob's Struggle”, in China's Millions, page 13. From the entry supplanter
  • What furious and divine selfishness is this, that asserts and sacrifices itself at the same moment; that refuses to hear of aught but itself and resolves itself in allhood?1994, Harry Brewster, The cosmopolites: a nineteenth-century family drama, page 207. From the entry allhood
  • Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.1946, The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Revised Standard Version: Translated from the Greek: […], New York, N.Y.…. From the entry party spirit

Meaning of selfishness

  1. noun The quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others.

Full definition of selfishness

Questions about selfishness in a sentence

How do you use selfishness in a sentence?
Selfishness is used as a noun. For example: “His actions impress a message of selfishness to us all.”
What is a short sentence with selfishness?
“His actions impress a message of selfishness to us all.”
What does selfishness mean?
Selfishness means the quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: selfishness (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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