self-invention
noun
self-in·ven·tion
ˌself-in-ˈven-shən 
plural self-inventions
: the act or an instance of inventing or creating one's identity or conception of oneself
her self-invention as a pop star
Bob Dylan has surpassed Walt Whitman as the defining American artist, celebrating the capacity for self-invention as the highest form of freedom.—
Cass R. Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein… I've been poring online … over certain performances, interesting myself in those moments when [David] Bowie seems on the cusp of one of his celebrated self-inventions …—Brian Dillon
Brian DillonExamples of self-invention in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Still, the pure rascality in these extravagant self-inventions shouldn’t be overlooked.
—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Once chosen, the members of Flo began an intense process of self-invention.
—The New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 May 2025
Her improbable success and unlikely downfall, and what her story says about belief and self-invention and fame, are in the lifeblood of Los Angeles.
—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2025
Traditional societies structured courtship and pairing firmly, but in modernity many of us enjoy freedom and self-invention.
—Jaron Lanier, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2025
Here, self-invention is an act of brutal violence with no discernable survivors.
—Chloe Schama, Vogue, 18 July 2024
Paris is a battered place of freedom, self-invention, cigarettes, and deep talk that springs from dark-eyed experience.
—Bart Bull, SPIN, 20 June 2023
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Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Once chosen, the members of Flo began an intense process of self-invention.
—The New York Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 May 2025
Her improbable success and unlikely downfall, and what her story says about belief and self-invention and fame, are in the lifeblood of Los Angeles.
—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2025
Traditional societies structured courtship and pairing firmly, but in modernity many of us enjoy freedom and self-invention.
—Jaron Lanier, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2025
Here, self-invention is an act of brutal violence with no discernable survivors.
—Chloe Schama, Vogue, 18 July 2024
Paris is a battered place of freedom, self-invention, cigarettes, and deep talk that springs from dark-eyed experience.
—Bart Bull, SPIN, 20 June 2023
Cite this Entry
“Self-invention.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-invention. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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