as in egotistical
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Recent Examples of self-aggrandizing
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dipped a toe inside the city limits — a dozen miles away from the protests — to host a self-aggrandizing press conference in Westwood, only to have U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla elbow his way in and be thrown to the ground by overzealous FBI agents.
—
Jim Newton, Mercury News, 12 July 2025
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
Jim Newton, Mercury News, 12 July 2025
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-aggrandizing
Adjective
-
Such an obvious way to exhibit his egotistical personality.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
22 June 2025
-
Responding to questions from defense lawyer Teny Geragos, Jane agreed that Combs became more apologetic and attentive, less egotistical and cold.—
NBC News,
NBC news,
13 June 2025
Adjective
-
In addition to Sandler, the 2025 film also sees the return of several familiar faces, including Julie Bowen as Happy’s love interest, Virginia Venit; Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin, Happy’s arrogant nemesis; and Ben Stiller as Hal L., the orderly from Happy’s grandmother’s nursing home.—
Monica Mercuri,
Forbes.com,
25 July 2025
-
Christopher McDonald plays Happy’s comically villainous, arrogant rival Shooter McGavin, maestro of the finger guns.—
Skyler Trepel,
EW.com,
25 July 2025
Adjective
-
The real real thing tended to be rather different: clumsy, ad hoc, vainglorious—and secret.—
Dan Piepenbring,
Harpers Magazine,
16 July 2025
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Here, too, in the Airfix models and the vainglorious LP collection is the solitary self-curation of the only child—the kid who can’t dash from his bedroom to a sibling’s, model or record in hand.—
James Wood,
New Yorker,
14 July 2025
Adjective
-
Jamie Demetriou, best known for his memorable performances in Fleabag and Stath Lets Flats, has been cast as the pompous and self-important distant relative who intends to marry one of the Bennet girls.—
Emily Blackwood,
People.com,
30 July 2025
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This self-important aging fart, going on and on about himself, his thoughts, feelings, emotions.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 July 2025
Adjective
-
To Tess, her daughter is self-centered, ungrateful and way too loud.—
Kirk Honeycutt,
HollywoodReporter,
12 July 2025
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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
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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
-
This splendid, wry satire is about a wealthy family, self-important and confident in their morality, whose blithe and bumptious existences are thrown into disarray when their father clandestinely decides to give all their money to charity, and so (in their opinions) completely destroys their lives.—
Literary Hub
July 1,
Literary Hub,
1 July 2025
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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
Adjective
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That sweet spot between professionalism, entertainment and high-and-mighty disapproval?—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
19 June 2025
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Lots of high-and-mighty people populate Tyrrell’s recollections.—
John Fund,
National Review,
26 Nov. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Self-aggrandizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-aggrandizing. Accessed 7 Aug. 2025.
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