solipsistic

adjective

so·​lip·​sis·​tic ˌsō-ləp-ˈsi-stik 

ˌsä-

: of, relating to, or characterized by solipsism or extreme egocentricity

The new punks can only rant about solipsistic concerns: themselves, their friends and girlfriends, and us, the people they think look at them funny.

—Bob Gulla

Played by a ferocious cast of nonactors, the dead-end adolescent rebels in Kids are like a wolf pack of baby sociopaths, leaping from one solipsistic sensation to the next.

—Owen Gleiberman

solipsistically

ˌsō-ləp-ˈsi-sti-k(ə-)lē 

ˌsä-

adverb

What we say to ourselves is often quite similar to what we say to each other, because we solipsistically forget that we are in fact speaking to someone else.

—James Wood

Synonyms

• selfish
• egotistical

Examples of solipsistic in a Sentence

regards today's young people as solipsistic slackers who have no knowledge of or interest in the world at large

Recent Examples on the Web

This was what attracted them, Mala said, because no Indian woman was allowed enough privacy to thus indulge in a solipsistic obsession with her own psychology—encouraged to chart the fluctuations of her temperament in response to deep crises that were inevitably banal. —Kiran Desai, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2025

Sandler, a one-time registered and politically active Republican, is conveying to his audience a traditional conservative message: A life well lived is not a solipsistic one that exalts the self but an altruistic one that places the interests of others above all else. —Josh Hammer, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Aug. 2025

The guitar, like golf, invites solipsistic dissolution masquerading as self-actualization. —Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 19 May 2025

In fact, that country’s name has become shorthand for a certain solipsistic dread in American popular culture. —Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 17 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1885, in the meaning defined above