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

But in the extreme, self-deprecating reactions to compliments can prevent you from seeing the truth about yourself and your capabilities. —Bryan Robinson, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025

Just like on her first two records, the lyrics on Euro-Country are often self-deprecating and funny, much as Thompson herself is in conversation. —Rachel Desantis, People.com, 29 Aug. 2025

For a filmmaker once renowned for his grandiosity, the director has always been surprisingly self-deprecating and conflicted in his own assessments of his work. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2025

Someone might say it about others in good-natured talk or themselves as a self-deprecating compliment. —Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 12 Aug. 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