self-deprecating

adjective

self-dep·​re·​cat·​ing ˌself-ˈde-pri-ˌkā-tiŋ 

: tending or serving to disparage or undervalue oneself

self-deprecating humor

He is far too self-deprecating … to assume the persona of a celebrity.

—Eve MacSweeney

self-deprecatingly adverb

… his own informal cluster of American dissident scholars, which self-deprecatingly calls itself the "consolation club" …

—Franklin Foer

Examples of self-deprecating in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Finally, Green Day did respond, and in characteristically cheeky and slightly self-deprecating fashion. —Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2025

The eldest daughter of King Frederik and Queen Mary turns 18 on April 21 and surprised the audience by cracking a self-deprecating joke at the start of her remarks at Aarhus City Hall on April 11. —Janine Henni, People.com, 14 Apr. 2025

Each self-deprecating joke gained momentary acceptance from white classmates who wanted permission to laugh at my difference without feeling guilty. —Philippa Pham Hughes, Time, 10 Apr. 2025

Jay Ryan pulls off a complete 180 from his malevolent-gangster work in Top of the Lake and, as polar researcher Alistair, nails the series’ self-deprecating white-guy jokes. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-deprecating

• accelerating
• accentuating
• accommodating
• accumulating
• adjudicating
• administrating
• affiliating
• agglutinating
• alienating
• alleviating
• amalgamating
• ameliorating