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

Neill was, by all accounts, a veritable Mensch with a warmly low-key and self-deprecating personality. — ArsTechnica, 15 July 2026

Their satire is both self-deprecating and externally critical. — Cassidy Sollazzo, Pitchfork, 13 July 2026

Haaland has been the World Cup’s biggest personality; a self-deprecating, smiling figurehead that has seldom looked happier than in a golden month with Norway. — Philip Buckingham, New York Times, 10 July 2026

All this was built on a self-deprecating stand-up persona that made hay of middle-aged masculinity. — Alison Herman, Variety, 30 June 2026

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