self-serving

adjective

self-serv·​ing ˌself-ˈsər-viŋ 

: serving one's own interests often in disregard of the truth or the interests of others

self-servingly adverb

Synonyms of self-serving

• selfish

Examples of self-serving in a Sentence

she's just another self-serving politician who puts her own ambitions above the public good

Recent Examples on the Web

The first proposition is plausible; the second is arguably self-serving. — Harry Booth, Time, 17 July 2026

More often than not, Odysseus’s deceit is manipulative and self-serving. — Natasha O'Neill, Vanity Fair, 16 July 2026

This, in fact, is how Palantir prices its offerings (so there’s the self-serving bit). — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 7 July 2026

And yet his insistence that his campaign wasn’t really about him, however self-serving, contains more than a seed of truth. — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 7 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1615, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for self-serving

• conserving
• deserving
• observing
• preserving
• reserving
• subserving
• unnerving
• unswerving
• curving
• serving
• swerving
• undeserving