self-aggrandizing

adjective

self-ag·​gran·​diz·​ing ˌself-ə-ˈgran-ˌdī-ziŋ 

also -ˈa-grən-

: acting or intended to enhance one's power, wealth, position, or reputation

… staggeringly self-aggrandizing greed and theft …

—William J. Astore

… a self-aggrandizing cad bent on gathering for himself whatever spoils he can amass from the public coffers.

—Paul Beckett

especially : boastful often in disregard of the truth

self-aggrandizing remarks

… the skill of talking about yourself in a natural way without coming off as a self-aggrandizing braggart.

—Jim Murray

… whose dishonest, self-aggrandizing memoirs adroitly snookered the public …

—Frank Rich

We hear of the self-aggrandizing fantasies which he told his sisters, as tales to amuse them.

—Robert Penn Warren

… was publicly suspended with no pay for six months after it emerged that he repeatedly told a self-aggrandizing, false story about being aboard a military helicopter hit by an RPG over Iraq.

—Kieran Corcoran and Christopher Brennan

self-aggrandizement

ˌself-ə-ˈgran-dəz-mənt, 

-ˌdīz- 

also -ˌa-grən-ˈdīz-

noun

plural self-aggrandizements

… the construction of monumental buildings for self-aggrandizement.

—Beatrice Forbes Manz

A native reticence, almost an aversion to anything that might be construed as boasting or self-aggrandizement, is paired with innate optimism, loyalty and a quiet determination.

—Steven Winn

Examples of self-aggrandizing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The overbearing online explainers and the off-the-cuff fuzz-rockers and the nine-and-counting films and the self-effacing but also self-aggrandizing mockumentary spin out from the same very modern feeling that to be is to respond and react. — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 24 July 2026

After all, if my brothers could be annoying, affectionate, and self-aggrandizing all at once, why couldn’t a man in the history books? — Literary Hub, 17 July 2026

Nevertheless, the self-aggrandizing and self-congratulations on display in the first three episodes available for review implies humility may be in short supply. — Jon O'Brien, IndieWire, 14 May 2026

This is, truly, a totally shameless and self-aggrandizing effort on the part of Mayor Trantalis and Commissioner Glassman. — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 20 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1820, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-aggrandizing

• actualizing
• antagonizing
• apologising
• apologizing
• capitalizing
• categorizing
• characterizing
• commercializing
• conceptualising
• conceptualizing
• criminalizing
• decentralizing