self-description

noun

self-de·​scrip·​tion ˌself-di-ˈskrip-shən 

plural self-descriptions

: the act or an instance of describing oneself

… earned a postwar degree from Harvard Law School, forever beggaring his self-description as "just a country lawyer."

—Kurt Andersen

… he is, by self-description, the son of Vietnamese refugees …

—Joyce Carol Oates

also : a self-descriptive statement

wrote a short self-description

Her self-description of "an outright gross cynic yet total Pollyanna" seems apt.

—Amanda Saxton

Examples of self-description in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That self-description is the title of a new documentary by the filmmakers Karen O’Connor, Maeve O’Boyle and Miri Navasky, which opens in theaters on October 6. O’Connor has known Baez since 1989, and their decades-long friendship earned the crew rare access. —Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Oct. 2023

The Apple logo prime led people to act more creatively on subsequent study tasks compared to subliminal IBM logo priming—but only when creativity was a part of the participants’ self-descriptions. —Nita Farahany, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2023

The national press has largely accepted Lightfoot’s self-description as progressive, but others on the ground have experienced her mayoralty differently. —Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1804, in the meaning defined above