selfish

adjective self·ish \ ˈsel-fish \

|Updated on: 16 Aug 2018

Definition of selfish

1 : concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others

2 : arising from concern with one's own welfare or advantage in disregard of others

a selfish act

3 : being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function

selfish DNA

; also : being genetic material solely concerned with its own replication

selfish genes

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selfishly

adverb

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selfishness

noun

See selfish defined for English-language learners

See selfish defined for kids

Examples of selfish in a Sentence

She's interested only in her own selfish concerns.
I wish he'd spend less time with his friends and more time with me. Am I being selfish?

Recent Examples of selfish from the Web

Emmylou Harris talks about how trapped Presley must have felt by fame, by pressure, by the selfish and self-serving choices made by manager Colonel Tom Parker.

— bill goodykoontz, azcentral, "Elvis Presley as metaphor for America in 'The King'," 12 July 2018
Despite being the sign of relationships (since they are represented by the scales), Libras can be a bit selfish in their dating and are prone to ghosting.

— sophie saint thomas, Allure, "What Your Zodiac Sign Says About Your Online Dating Style," 6 July 2018
By helping its host cells, Feschotte says, the transposon achieves its selfish ends.

— mitch leslie, Science | AAAS, "Don’t call it junk—This ‘jumping’ gene may be why you made it past an embryo," 21 June 2018
In other words, June’s refusal to leave was selfish in more ways than one.

— sophie gilbert, The Atlantic, "A Maddening Season Finale for The Handmaid’s Tale," 11 July 2018
The researchers plan to modify this selfish gene to create daughterless mice: females carrying two copies will give birth only to males, potentially leading to a population crash.

— ewen callaway, Scientific American, "Controversial CRISPR “Gene Drives” Tested in Mammals for the First Time," 10 July 2018
Participants, on the whole, didn’t like Heidi much and described her as selfish.

— laura mcgann, Vox, "Are Democrats brave enough to run a woman against Donald Trump?," 16 June 2018
What's selfish is not taking care of me and being in a bad mood all day.

— NBC News, "The mental shift that helped Teddi Mellencamp finally lose weight for good," 1 May 2018
The best, albeit most selfish, part about the initial dip in numbers of less intrepid visitors?

— jason tesauro, Esquire, "Want to Help Napa Recover from the Wildfires? Visit and Drink Wine.," 6 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'selfish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.