Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Selfishness |
SelfishnessNoun1. Stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "selfishness" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Synonym: SelfishnessSynonym: self-love. (additional references) |
| Antonym: unselfishness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Greed | Selfishness; auri sacra fames. |
Selfishness | Noun: selfishness; Adjective: self-love, self-indulgence, self-worship, self-interest; egotism, egoism; amour propre; (vanity); nepotism. |
Vanity | Noun: vanity; conceit, conceitedness; self-conceit, self-complacency, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-love, self-approbation, self-praise, self-glorification, self-laudation, self-gratulation, self-applause, self-admiration; amour propre; selfishness. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Selfishness |
| English words defined with "selfishness": adroit ♦ clever, Contractedness, cupboard love ♦ Hobbes, Hoggery ♦ ingenious ♦ oral, oral personality ♦ Philauty ♦ Selfism, Selfness, Suicism ♦ Thomas Hobbes. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "selfishness": Abhor ♦ Baste ♦ Chickens ♦ Hopkinsians, Horse ♦ Ice, Iron ♦ Lark, Little Nell ♦ Miser, Models ♦ Redlaw, Refrigerator ♦ selfish, Shooting, Slander ♦ Volcano ♦ Whisky. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "selfishness": Selfness. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Love and selfishness kinda go hand in hand, don't they (Rurouni Kenshin; writing credit: Johan Unenge; Måns Gahrton) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Uncle Sam, reading bumps of "selfishness," "ignorance," "honesty," and other words on head of Democratic Party. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Hit the bull's eye!--Is your name on this list? Get out of your own little circle of selfishness into the big circle of service. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Establish a new standard of merit for the people : just as the heroic 4th platoon and commrade Li Wen'chung worked to defeat selfishness and promote the common good, we should convert Chairman Mao's most recent directive into action. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Caleb Colton | Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who. when alive, would not have contributed. |
Henry Ward Beecher | Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself. |
| Life represents the efforts of men to organize society; government, the efforts of selfishness to overthrow liberty. | |
Homer | Benevolence is allied to few vices; selfishness to few virtues. |
Lao-Tzu | Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires. |
Nathaniel Hawthorne | Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love. |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge | All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | The event acquitted her of all the fancifulness, and all the selfishness of imaginary complaints |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He felt even to the roots of his hair the immense awakening of selfishness, and the Me howled in the abyss of his soul |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | Women must be mistaking selfishness for shock. |
Rush Limbaugh | The Media Pushes CFR Out of Selfishness and Greed CFR leaves the media the final arbiter and with the vast majority of the power when it comes to political speech, because they will not be affected at all by the ban, since they don't charge themselves. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Warren G. Harding | 1921-1923 | While it uncovered our portion of hateful selfishness at home, it also revealed the heart of America as sound and fearless, and beating in confidence unfailing. |
George W. Bush | 2001-2005 | Our enemies believed America was weak and materialistic, that we would splinter in fear and selfishness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Selfishness" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Selfishness" is used about 199 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 199 | 21,651 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "selfishness": manlike selfishness. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
selfishness | 38 |
quote selfishness | 6 |
virtue of selfishness | 5 |
ethical sacrifice selfishness social | 5 |
poem selfishness | 2 |
overcoming selfishness | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "selfishness"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | baatsugtigheid (selfinterest), baatsug (selfinterest). (various references) | |
Albanian | egoizëm (ego, egoism, self interest, self-love, self-regard). (various references) | |
Arabic | حب للذات فقط, أنانية (egoism, egotism, self interest, selfhood). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | себелюбие (egoism, self interest, self-love, self-regard). (various references) | |
Chinese | 自私自利, 自私 (selfish). (various references) | |
Czech | sobectví (egoism, egotism, possessiveness, selfhood). (various references) | |
Dutch | zelfzucht (selfinterest), eigenbaat (selfinterest), egoïsme (selfinterest), baatzucht (selfinterest). (various references) | |
Esperanto | egoismo (selfinterest). (various references) | |
Faeroese | sjálvgøðska (selfinterest). (various references) | |
Finnish | omanvoitonpyynti (self-interest), itsekkyys (egoism, egotism). (various references) | |
French | egoïsme, égoïsme. (various references) | |
Frisian | eigenik (selfinterest). (various references) | |
German | Selbstsucht (egoism, selfinterest), Eigensucht (self-centeredness), Egoismus (egoism, egotism, selfinterest). (various references) | |
Greek | ιδιοτέλεια (self interest, self-seeking), φιλαυτία (individualism, self-love, vanity). (various references) | |
Hebrew | א וכיות (egoism, egotism, self interest). (various references) | |
Hungarian | önzés (assertiveness, egoism, egomania, egotism, self interest, self-love). (various references) | |
Italian | egoismo (egoism, self-seeking). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 我が侭 (willfulness), 利己心 (egoism), 勝手 (kitchen, one's own convenience, one's way), 侈 (arbitrariness, extravagance, luxury, pride), 我利我利 (selfish person), 我儘 (disobedience, egoism, whim, wilfulness), 我侭 (disobedience, egoism, whim, wilfulness), 我欲 , 我情 (bias, personal feelings), 利己主義 (egoism), 我が儘 (egoism, wilfulness), 身勝手 (egoism, egotism), 我がまま (disobedience, egoism, whim, wilfulness), 恣意 (arbitrariness), 欲得 (self-interest), 気まま (one's own way, willfulness), "算 (calculation, self-interest), 私心 (selfish motive), 私意 (personal opinion), 自己本位 (egoism, self-centeredness), 我が儘 (disobedience, egoism, whim, wilfulness). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | がりがり (selfish person), がよく, がじょう (bias, inner citadel, new year's card, personal feelings, picture album, stronghold), しし" (compass needle, envoy, guideline, poetic inspiration, pointer, private message, selfish motive, visual examination), きまま (one's own way, selfish, willful, willfulness), しい (arbitrariness, circumference, demonstration, personal opinion, show of force, speculation, surroundings, thinking, thought), かって (before, ever, ex-, former, formerly, kitchen, never, once, one's own convenience, one's way), り"しゅぎ (egoism), り"し" (egoism), わがまま (disobedience, egoism, whim, wilfulness, willfulness), よくとく (self-interest), じ"ほ"い (egoism, self-centeredness), みがって (egoism, egotism), さ" (calculation, self-interest), し (arbitrariness, below, calling card, city, civil service, death, decease, document, extravagance, four, luxury, magazine, master, next, official, offspring, one's mentor, order, poem, pride, recollect, records, relish, remember, sequence, show a liking for, teacher, the Reverend, times, verse of poetry). (various references) | |
Korean | 사심. (various references) | |
Manx | sondid (avarice, close-fistedness, closeness, covetousness, sordidness). (various references) | |
Papiamen | egoismo (selfinterest). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | elfishnesssay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | egoísmo (big head, egoism, selfinterest, self-love). (various references) | |
Romanian | egoism (egoism, self, self-seeking). (various references) | |
Russian | эгоистичность, эгоизм (ego trip, egoism, egomania, self interest, self-hood, self-interest, self-regard). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sebičnost (self-centeredness), samoživost. (various references) | |
Spanish | egoísmo (egoism, self, self interest, selfhood, self-love, self-seeking). (various references) | |
Swedish | själviskhet (egoism, self-seeking), egoism (egoism, self-seeking), egennytta (expedience, expediency, self interest, self-interest). (various references) | |
Turkish | egoistlik, benlík (selfinterest), bencillik (egoism, individualism, self). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | себелюбство (self-love), егоїзм (egoism, selfhood). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính ích kỷ (egoism, self-love). (various references) | |
Welsh | hunanoldeb (conceit), hunan.garwch. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "selfishness": selfishnesses. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "selfishness": unselfishness. (additional references) | |
Words containing "selfishness": unselfishnesses. (additional references) | |
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"Selfishness" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Seelisches, selfishless, selfishnes, selfishnesses. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "selfishness" (pronounced se"lfi'shnus) |
| 5 | -i' sh n u s | bullishness, foolishness. |
| 4 | -sh n u s | bearishness, boorishness, brashness, freshness, harshness, skittishness, sluggishness, squeamishness, waterishness. |
| 3 | -n u s | abruptness, absoluteness, acuteness, aggressiveness, agribusiness, airworthiness, alertness, aloofness, alumnus, Anas, androgynous, anise, appropriateness, arbitrariness, assertiveness, astuteness, asynchronous, attentiveness, attractiveness, awareness, awfulness, awkwardness, backwardness, badness, bagginess, baldness, bigness, bitterness, bituminous, blackness, blandness, bleakness, blindness, bluntness, boldness, bonus, brightness, business, callousness, calmness, carelessness, casualness, cautiousness, cavernous, cheapness, chitinous, cleanliness, cleanness, cleverness, closeness, cloudiness, clumsiness, cockiness, cohesiveness, coldness, Colonus, combativeness, compactness, competitiveness, completeness, consciousness, contagiousness, contentiousness, contrariness, Conus, coolness, correctness, coziness, craziness, creativeness, creditworthiness, creepiness, crispness, crookedness, cuteness, dampness, darkness, Deaconess, deadliness, deafness, decisiveness, defensiveness, destructiveness, directness, disingenuousness, distinctiveness, divisiveness, dizziness, dreariness, drowsiness, drunkenness, dryness, dullness, eagerness, earnestness, edginess, effectiveness, elusiveness, emptiness, evenness, exogenous, eyewitness, faintness, fairness, farsightedness, fastness, fickleness, firmness, fitness, flatness, fondness, forcefulness, forgiveness, forthrightness, foulness, fractiousness, frankness, friendliness, frothiness, fullness, funniness, furnace, gauntness, gayness, gelatinous, gentleness, genuineness, genus, ghastliness, gluttonous, goodness, governess, graciousness, greatness, greenness, grimness, hairiness, handedness, happiness, hardness, harmfulness, harness, heinous, helplessness, highness, hoarseness, holiness, homelessness, homesickness, homogenous, hopefulness, hopelessness, humanness, idleness, illness, inclusiveness, indebtedness, indecisiveness, indigenous, ineffectiveness, ineptness, inertness, intravenous, intrusiveness, inventiveness, joblessness, Johannes, kindness, larcenous, largeness, lateness, lawlessness, laziness, lenis, lightfastness, lightness, likeness, liveliness, loneliness, lousiness, luminous, madness, Manus, meanness, membranous, menace, Minas, mindedness, minus, monotonous, mountainous, mutinous, narrowness, nastiness, nearsightedness, neatness, nervousness, newness, niceness, nitrogenous, nonbusiness, nonpoisonous, nosiness, nothingness, numbness, ominous, oneness, onus, openness, orderliness, otherness, outrageousness, outspokenness, pandanus, peacefulness, penis, permissiveness, persuasiveness, pervasiveness, pettiness, playfulness, poisonous, politeness, polygynous, pompousness, possessiveness, powerlessness, preparedness, queasiness, quickness, quietness, raciness, randomness, rareness, ravenous, rawness, readiness, reasonableness, rebelliousness, recklessness, redness, remoteness, resistiveness, resourcefulness, responsiveness, restiveness, restlessness, restrictiveness, richness, righteousness, rightness, riskiness, robustness, roominess, roughness, rowdiness, rudeness, ruinous, ruthlessness, sacredness, sadness, Salinas, sameness, scantiness, secretiveness, selflessness, sensitiveness, separateness, seriousness, shakiness, shallowness, sharpness, shortness, shortsightedness, shrewdness, shyness, sickness, silliness, sinus, slackness, sleepiness, sloppiness, slovenliness, slowness, slyness, smallness, smoothness, smugness, softness, solitariness, soundness, spiritedness, starkness, steadfastness, steadiness, steepness, sternness, stiffness, stillness, stinginess, stoutness, strangeness, stubbornness, sturdiness, suddenness, suggestiveness, sweetness, swiftness, tardiness, tartness, tastiness, tenderness, tetanus, thickness, thinness, thoroughness, thoughtfulness, tightness, timeliness, tiredness, togetherness, toughness, trustworthiness, truthfulness, ugliness, unconsciousness, uneasiness, unfairness, unhappiness, uniqueness, unpleasantness, unwieldiness, unwillingness, usefulness, vagueness, vastness, venous, viciousness, villainous, vindictiveness, vividness, voluminous, wariness, wastefulness, weakness, weariness, weightlessness, weirdness, wellness, wetness, whiteness, wholeness, wholesomeness, wickedness, wilderness, wildness, willingness, wimpiness, wistfulness, witness, wonderfulness, worldliness, worthiness, wryness. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-f-h-i-l-n-s-s-s-s" | |
-1 letter: fleshiness. | |
-3 letters: finesses, fishless, selfness. | |
-4 letters: enisles, ensiles, felines, finesse, finless, flenses, fleshes, hisself, lessens, selfish, seniles, sessile, sinless. | |
-5 letters: elfins, elfish, enisle, ensile, feline, fesses, filses, fishes, flense, hisses, lenses, lessen, nesses, seines, seises, senile, senses, sheens, shiels, shines, sneesh. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-f-h-i-l-n-s-s-s-s" | |
+1 letter: flashinesses, fleshinesses. | |
+2 letters: faithlessness, folkishnesses, foolishnesses, selfishnesses, shiftlessness, unselfishness, wishfulnesses, wolfishnesses. | |
+3 letters: thriftlessness. | |
+4 letters: faithlessnesses, lightfastnesses, shiftlessnesses, unselfishnesses. | |
+5 letters: sprightfulnesses, thriftlessnesses, worshipfulnesses. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
