as in smug
having too high an opinion of oneself
a self-important businessman who believed his schedule mattered more than anyone else's
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of self-important
Unsurprisingly, the small army of senior executives with make-work jobs and self-important titles, who add little to nothing to build Hearst’s brands, apparently made it through today relatively unscathed.
—
Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2024
Finally, someone is standing up and holding the fat, middle-aged White reporter accountable, and there’s nobody in the world that dislikes it less to be held accountable than the fat, middle-aged, White, self-important columnist at a newspaper.
—Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 28 Aug. 2024
The self-important Brackman often was the butt of his colleagues’ jokes.
—Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Nov. 2024
Balmy does prove to be slightly sinister and fully absurd, in the way of self-important cult leaders everywhere, and Le Moulin even more so.
—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for self-important
Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Nov. 2024
Finally, someone is standing up and holding the fat, middle-aged White reporter accountable, and there’s nobody in the world that dislikes it less to be held accountable than the fat, middle-aged, White, self-important columnist at a newspaper.
—Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 28 Aug. 2024
The self-important Brackman often was the butt of his colleagues’ jokes.
—Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Nov. 2024
Balmy does prove to be slightly sinister and fully absurd, in the way of self-important cult leaders everywhere, and Le Moulin even more so.
—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for self-important
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-important
Adjective
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Everyone’s relationship has, yes, seasons, and each couple weathers a few different ones during the show, with smug closeness eroding into terse bitterness, doting affection into resentful frustration.—
Margaret Lyons,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
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Dissections of power and masculinity that once bristled with adversarial vitality evolved into arid dialectics and windy anecdotes pickled in smug cynicism and lacking in thematic clarity.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The targets of Trump’s economic aggression will accept greater hardship to preserve their dignity than American voters will for the privilege of acting like arrogant menaces.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
29 Apr. 2025
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This feud carries on today, with Hogan having called out Hart for being too arrogant.—
David Faris,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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And for any fan of the show — and Wilson’s over-the-top, egotistical Dwight — the lyrics might not be a total surprise.—
Victoria Edel,
People.com,
15 Apr. 2025
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In the 1998 episode, Theroux, 53, appears briefly as an egotistical writer who flirts with Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw at a party.—
John Russell,
People.com,
26 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are proud of the state of stoner comedy.—
Angela Andaloro,
People.com,
3 May 2025
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The proud regionality of Italy is one such example and this book shows it off beautifully.—
Wilder Davies,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
2 May 2025
Adjective
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For Ueda, the fear is that his two-year effort to end Japan’s deflation-era rate policies will have been in vain.—
William Pesek,
Forbes.com,
30 Apr. 2025
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The film brought in $4.1 mil over the weekend, so Charles Melton did not shave Kit Connor in vain.—
Alejandra Gularte,
Vulture,
20 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Ivy-as-Marilyn is an inconsiderate, amphetamine guzzling faux-intellectual whose devotion to the acting craft is presented as a vainglorious affectation.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
10 Apr. 2025
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The name is meant to evoke Theodore Roosevelt’s vainglorious 1898 cavalry charge up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War.—
Robert F. Worth,
The Atlantic,
8 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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This is the worst kind of football team: a conceited but objectively mediocre squad.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
The Mercury News,
17 Nov. 2024
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Rory Kinnear steals some of the best lines as the conceited British prime minister, and Ato Essandoh, as Kate’s deputy chief, plays the ever-flustered man surrounded by extremely capable women with admirable humor, charm, and confidence.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
30 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Nelis renders the professor a pompous and pedantic twit but not a heartless one.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Mar. 2025
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Our rituals and our cassocks are pompous.—
Paul Elie,
The New Yorker,
26 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-important.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-important. Accessed 11 May. 2025.
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