as in egotistical
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Recent Examples of self-aggrandizing
Arnett’s narration is conversational but authoritative, proud but not self-aggrandizing.
—
Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 12 May 2025
While Musk’s often self-aggrandizing moves can be polarizing, Trump’s promotion of him as his proxy balances it out.
—Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 28 Mar. 2025
Admittedly, to anyone not in Chalamet’s camp at this moment, that speech might have seemed self-aggrandizing, a kind of boy-king entitlement.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 25 Feb. 2025
Heavy handed, self-aggrandizing hype and a near certain success in doing what any other major American politician would have been afraid to do.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Feb. 2025
When senators read from their self-aggrandizing scripts, the resemblance to play actors is incontrovertible.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 20 Jan. 2025
Corbet recalled shooting the scene where Van Buren leads a group of party guests outside to a hillside overlook that would become the location for his institute and delivers a long speech that is somehow both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2024
Classifying what Piece by Piece will be exactly, especially in the often self-aggrandizing realm of the musical biopic, is a challenge.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2024
The rise of Huawei is painstakingly rendered in a small library of self-aggrandizing literature that the company publishes, including several volumes of quotes from its founder.
—Steven Levy, WIRED, 16 Nov. 2020
Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 12 May 2025
While Musk’s often self-aggrandizing moves can be polarizing, Trump’s promotion of him as his proxy balances it out.
—Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 28 Mar. 2025
Admittedly, to anyone not in Chalamet’s camp at this moment, that speech might have seemed self-aggrandizing, a kind of boy-king entitlement.
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 25 Feb. 2025
Heavy handed, self-aggrandizing hype and a near certain success in doing what any other major American politician would have been afraid to do.
—Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Feb. 2025
When senators read from their self-aggrandizing scripts, the resemblance to play actors is incontrovertible.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 20 Jan. 2025
Corbet recalled shooting the scene where Van Buren leads a group of party guests outside to a hillside overlook that would become the location for his institute and delivers a long speech that is somehow both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2024
Classifying what Piece by Piece will be exactly, especially in the often self-aggrandizing realm of the musical biopic, is a challenge.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2024
The rise of Huawei is painstakingly rendered in a small library of self-aggrandizing literature that the company publishes, including several volumes of quotes from its founder.
—Steven Levy, WIRED, 16 Nov. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-aggrandizing
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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For example, when a man in his sixties talks about the same thing, he’s seen as calm and logical, but when a woman in her twenties talks about it, she’s seen as arrogant or trying to act mature.—
Billboard Japan,
Billboard,
15 May 2025
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By losing some of its arrogant charm, Doom has also lost the means to back it up.—
Christopher Cruz,
Rolling Stone,
15 May 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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Matt and his direct reports quickly reveal themselves to be spineless, self-important, thin-skinned, and out of touch.—
Inkoo Kang,
New Yorker,
5 May 2025
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His cruel caricature of the technocratic, self-important, and sometimes petty bureaucratic culture of the commission is largely accurate.—
Andrew Moravcsik,
Foreign Affairs,
10 Dec. 2019
Adjective
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Trump is self-centered, boastful and uncaring about the needs of others.—
Tom Zirpoli,
Baltimore Sun,
13 May 2025
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The second thing is that a lot of our discussion about happiness is overly self-centered.—
Renée Onque,
CNBC,
30 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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As Peggy Dodd, consigliere to her bumptious 1950s cult-leader husband, Adams tends to wear a soft smile and blouses buttoned to the neck — a picture-perfect model of mid-century femininity.—
Matthew Jacobs,
Vulture,
6 Dec. 2024
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It’s all spanked along by one of those golly-gee bumptious holiday musical scores.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
27 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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To his critics, Jost’s smug humor felt noticeably anachronistic at a time when the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements were calling for a greater awareness of society’s deep inequalities, and for ostensibly liberal institutions to do better.—
Michael Tedder,
The Atlantic,
17 May 2025
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The series has been characterized by smug antics in defeat.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
16 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Self-aggrandizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-aggrandizing. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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