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

… 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

Examples of self-invention in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Now self-invention is a business model available to anyone with a phone and sufficient self-regard. — Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 11 Sep. 2026

Its radical glamour felt defiantly alive, insisting on visibility, pleasure, and self-invention as acts of cultural resistance. — Thomas Rom, ARTnews.com, 8 June 2026

Fort Greene Park | Free with RSVP NYC Pride takes center stage in this radiant program of LGBTQIA+ short films from around the world, pulsing with self-invention, resistance, and the intimate acts of becoming and belonging. — Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 12 May 2026

Lee was born on Long Island and embodies the restless spirit of American self-invention. — Jim Dobson, Forbes.com, 7 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-invention

• apprehension
• comprehension
• condescension
• hypertension
• hypotension
• reinvention
• reprehension
• resuspension
• attention
• contention
• convention
• declension