inner-directed

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of inner-directed One is inner-directed, determined to build self-esteem. Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inner-directed
Adjective
  • Cena gets to show off his mane of hair while playing Peacemaker, the egotistical vigilante that made his debut in 2021's Suicide Squad and now leads the acclaimed HBO Max series also starring Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, and Jennifer Holland.
    Mekishana Pierre, EW.com, 6 Aug. 2025
  • Such an obvious way to exhibit his egotistical personality.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 22 June 2025
Adjective
  • The community organizer turned president turned socialite has never been great at hiding his egocentric ways.
    Grace Curley, Boston Herald, 21 July 2025
  • Bang is perfect for this kind of role, playing an imposing figure who can be both aloof and egocentric, and whose grand stature diminishes as the film progresses.
    Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2025
Adjective
  • Under all the self-referential jokes and sight gags, 2017's LEGO spinoff understands who Bruce Wayne is: a troubled, slightly narcissistic man-child who'd rather put on a cape than confront past traumas.
    Devan Coggan, EW.com, 3 Aug. 2025
  • Cruel, narcissistic, duplicitous—the list is long and by now so familiar that even some of Trump’s supporters concede that his most poisonous attributes are, to use the D.C. lingo, baked into the cake.
    David Remnick, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • The United States seems to be the only major nation that’s in the grip of such mercenary and selfish dogma.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Each declaration chips away at the outdated beliefs that wealth is unladylike or selfish.
    Melissa Houston, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • 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
Adjective
  • To Tess, her daughter is self-centered, ungrateful and way too loud.
    Kirk Honeycutt, HollywoodReporter, 12 July 2025
  • To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.
    Joe Kottke, NBC news, 27 June 2025
Adjective
  • Brilliant and brave, the poet and soldier was also entirely self-absorbed, turning the Adriatic city into his own personal manuscript.
    Ed Simon June 23, Literary Hub, 23 June 2025
  • Is Huda self-absorbed, overdramatic, extremely volatile, overly obsessed with traditional gender roles, and impossible to please?
    Shannon Keating, Vulture, 19 June 2025
Adjective
  • Ethan’s leadership was poor and arguably self-involved; Joan let herself get manipulated; and Angelo’s now been in the bottom twice.
    Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Stone plays the glamorous and self-involved Ginger McKenna in the film, directed by Martin Scorsese.
    Angela Andaloro, People.com, 6 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Inner-directed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inner-directed. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.

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