solipsistic

adjective

so·​lip·​sis·​tic ˌsō-ləp-ˈsi-stik How to pronounce solipsistic (audio)
ˌsä-
: of, relating to, or characterized by solipsism or extreme egocentricity
The new punks can only rant about solipsistic concerns: themselves, their friends and girlfriends, and us, the people they think look at them funny.Bob Gulla
Played by a ferocious cast of nonactors, the dead-end adolescent rebels in Kids are like a wolf pack of baby sociopaths, leaping from one solipsistic sensation to the next.Owen Gleiberman
solipsistically adverb
What we say to ourselves is often quite similar to what we say to each other, because we solipsistically forget that we are in fact speaking to someone else. James Wood

Examples of solipsistic in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This assessment dovetails with a common criticism of autobiographical fiction, which holds that such work is inherently solipsistic. Tope Folarin, The Atlantic, 29 Feb. 2024 Then again, there's something increasingly solipsistic about the show leaning on former cast members to host. Andy Hoglund, EW.com, 15 Oct. 2023 Even at its most introspective, introverted or solipsistic, this music has always been a response to the tumultuous everything-else that exists outside our heads. Chris Richards, Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2023 The scene is Cole’s acknowledgment that aesthetic consciousness remains passive and solipsistic even when experienced in common, and that danger demands a different kind of solidarity—one that is active, ethical, even political. Adam Kirsch, Harper's Magazine, 14 Aug. 2023 That’s Amy Nicholson repeating the recent revisionism toward Hitchcock’s Vertigo that values pop art only in solipsistic terms. Armond White, National Review, 7 June 2023 Commercial ancestry companies have cashed in on our natural, if solipsistic, curiosity about these individual histories. Kyle Harper, WSJ, 9 Apr. 2021 This case is remarkably solipsistic. Michael Kimmage, The New Republic, 26 Jan. 2021 Whatever criticism the genial Shammas had until then withheld is here let loose, with a stroke of satiric brilliance, in the figure of the solipsistic Bar-On. Ruth Margalit, The New York Review of Books, 30 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'solipsistic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of solipsistic was in 1885

Dictionary Entries Near solipsistic

Cite this Entry

“Solipsistic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solipsistic. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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