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
  • As a chef’s kiss, Manning plays for Texas, a yearslong egocentric underachiever that plenty of college football fans love to hate.
    Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY, 9 Oct. 2025
  • The community organizer turned president turned socialite has never been great at hiding his egocentric ways.
    Grace Curley, Boston Herald, 21 July 2025
Adjective
  • In the first season, tThe drama based on James Patterson’s best-selling novel series saw Cross pursue a narcissistic serial killer played by Ryan Eggold and uncover Miss Nancy as an assumed stalker endangering his family.
    Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Cursed to always be the back-up singer, Dixie is narcissistic, ruthless and driven by revenge.
    Bryan West, Nashville Tennessean, 7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Beneath such moves often lurks a selfish desire to soothe increasing anxiety, unrest, and potentially even boredom.
    Kurt Strovink, Fortune, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Part of this project was selfish.
    Big Think, Big Think, 7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • As with the works of that solipsistic filmmaker, plot is not a major element of Situations, the title of which proves accurate.
    Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 8 Oct. 2025
  • The American academy has been far more used to a confessionalistic, even solipsistic style in its lyric poetry.
    Elaine L. Wang September 11, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Jay is a little more self-centered.
    Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Between the ages of 6 and 9, children begin shifting from being self-centered to noticing the emotions and perspectives of others.
    Ekaterina Muravevskaia, The Conversation, 2 Oct. 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
  • The screenwriter, Nora Garrett, has achieved an amusingly florid Hollywood simulacrum—one that tilts into knowing parody—of an intensely self-regarding world.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Redford said recent signs of a resurgence in student activism are welcome change over the 1980s, when many were self-involved and primarily concerned about making money.
    Hannah Parry Amanda Castro, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
  • The men at the film’s center — Paul and Carey — are hysterical and self-involved.
    Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 22 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 14 Oct. 2025.

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