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

Arguably the greatest classical actor of his generation, McKellen’s command of the stage, of language and also, crucially, of silence hold the audience rapt, especially in gleefully self-aggrandizing soliloquies. —David Benedict, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024

Quite frankly, Booth’s eventual demise by the show’s finale is a relief from the constant rants and self-aggrandizing. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 Mar. 2024

In North Korea, experts say, Trump handed brutal dictator Kim Jong Un a powerful propaganda victory by holding fruitless and self-aggrandizing summits. —Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2024

The image of Nyad that has emerged in recent weeks, as reported in an in-depth piece by my Times colleague Josh Rottenberg, is of a remarkable athlete with a history of exaggerating her many achievements — a self-aggrandizing scourge of the marathon swimming community. —Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2023

It’s been the same as the rest, self-interested, self-aggrandizing, only with better winter weather. —Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 Aug. 2023

With some actors, the idea that a basically normal businessman might be this innately persuasive could read as self-aggrandizing, even delusional. —Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 June 2023

The filmmaker mocks the machismo of uniformed service professions via his explicitly gay scenarios and laughs at the self-aggrandizing upper classes with a strenuous flatulence. —Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2023

Season 3 of the once-great show fell into disarray amid a series of mind-boggling character choices, self-aggrandizing flights of fancy and obnoxiously long and meandering episodes. —Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 31 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1820, in the meaning defined above