inner-directed

Definition of inner-directednext

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 of this week, thanks to the egocentric exertions of the current President and his obedient underlings and friends, the place has been renamed the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
    David Remnick, New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2025
  • 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
Adjective
  • Was Kiritsis a narcissistic madman or a schmuck who’d put too much trust in the American ideals of hard work and fair treatment?
    Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Even though a lot of what happens in the book borders on the ridiculous because of the behavior of narcissistic selfish venal individuals.
    David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 26 Dec. 2025
Adjective
  • Freedom and rule of law were defended last night, but dictators will try to exploit this to rationalize their selfish objectives.
    Rachel Scott, ABC News, 3 Jan. 2026
  • Even though a lot of what happens in the book borders on the ridiculous because of the behavior of narcissistic selfish venal individuals.
    David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 26 Dec. 2025
Adjective
  • Such moments—subjective but hardly solipsistic—are few and far between.
    Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
  • Helm is nothing if not solipsistic, narcissistic even.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Your son appears to be self-centered and emotionally distanced from you and the family.
    Abigail Van Buren, Boston Herald, 22 Dec. 2025
  • Your son appears to be self-centered and emotionally distanced from you and the family.
    Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 20 Dec. 2025
Adjective
  • Two Weeks Notice Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock star as charming and undeniably self-absorbed millionaire George Wade and his overworked, underappreciated, multi-tasking chief counsel, Lucy Kelson.
    Caitlin White, Variety, 10 Nov. 2025
  • Anyone who subscribes to that, as far as I’m concerned, was always self-absorbed and had no interest in the common good anyway.
    Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 29 Oct. 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
  • Nola Darling is a successful graphic artist, living it up in Brooklyn and dating three men: gentlemanly Jamie, self-involved Greer, and motormouth Mars.
    John Ortved, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2025
  • 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

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Inner-directed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inner-directed. Accessed 22 Jan. 2026.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!