self-promotion

noun

self-pro·​mo·​tion ˌself-prə-ˈmō-shən 

plural self-promotions

: the act of furthering one's own growth, advancement, or prosperity : the promotion of oneself

didn't try to disguise his self-promotion

self-promoter

ˌself-prə-ˈmō-tər 

noun

plural self-promoters

a self-promoter who never mentioned his teammates in interviews

They both worked tirelessly on the project and never thought about bringing attention to themselves. They weren't self-promoters …

—Jim Lambert

self-promoting

ˌself-prə-ˈmō-tiŋ 

adjective

self-promoting speeches

a self-promoting celebrity/politician

Examples of self-promotion in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This week saw an example of some missing details in its self-promotion that ought to be highlighted. —Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 9 May 2026

Robert Joseph Cox was a humble man in a high-profile job who managed to control the universal impulse for self-promotion, a cleats guy who took great pride in being able to wear those cleats to work every day. —Mark Bradley For The Ajc, AJC.com, 9 May 2026

And at what point does self-promotion become self-indulgent? —Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 8 May 2026

At the high end, there’s a lot of self-promotion from people that are selling models who are talking in wild extrapolations of what could happen. —Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 3 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1653, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-promotion

• locomotion
• commotion
• demotion
• devotion
• emotion
• laotian
• promotion
• lotion
• notion
• ocean
• potion