as in suicide
the act of deliberately killing oneself
the controversy over self-destruction accomplished with the assistance of a physician or other person
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Recent Examples of self-destruction
There’s the White House and its malicious megaphone of mindlessness; the generative AI advocates and their pushy, pathetic ploys; the Major League Baseball owners and their dedication to self-destruction.
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Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2026
In the case of the misbegotten At the Sea, Amy Adams stars as Laura, a wife, mother and daughter who sees all of those parts of her life collide into self-destruction after a drunk-driving accident with her son Felix (Redding Munsell) in the car.
—Pete Hammond, Deadline, 16 Feb. 2026
In this succession of adaptations, each filmmaker has gradually softened the original form—a dark and twisted story of obsession, generational trauma, and self-destruction—into something that more closely resembles a wild, cinematic love story.
—Cazzie David, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2026
By the time of the 2004 Biennial, to which Violette contributed an ensemble of works situating the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain as an archetype of Romantic self-destruction, the neo-goth sensibility was prevalent enough to occasion a catalogue essay on the subject by cocurator Shamim Momin.
—Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for self-destruction
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2026
In the case of the misbegotten At the Sea, Amy Adams stars as Laura, a wife, mother and daughter who sees all of those parts of her life collide into self-destruction after a drunk-driving accident with her son Felix (Redding Munsell) in the car.
—Pete Hammond, Deadline, 16 Feb. 2026
In this succession of adaptations, each filmmaker has gradually softened the original form—a dark and twisted story of obsession, generational trauma, and self-destruction—into something that more closely resembles a wild, cinematic love story.
—Cazzie David, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2026
By the time of the 2004 Biennial, to which Violette contributed an ensemble of works situating the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain as an archetype of Romantic self-destruction, the neo-goth sensibility was prevalent enough to occasion a catalogue essay on the subject by cocurator Shamim Momin.
—Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for self-destruction
Cite this Entry
“Self-destruction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-destruction. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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